OUR 
POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 


OUR  POLITICAL 
DEGRADATION 


BEING  SEVERAL  SHORT  ESSAYS  SETTING  FORTH 
CERTAIN  FACTS  WHICH  EVERY  THOUGHT- 
FUL CITIZEN  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES  SHOULD  KNOW 


BY 


BUSH  C.  HAWKINS 

M.A.,  LL.D.,  BREVET  BRIGADIER-GENERAL  U.  S.V. 

AND  AN  OFFICER  OF  THE  LEGION  OF 

HONOR  OF  FRANCE 


THE   GRAFTON   PRESS 

NEW   TOEK 


COPYKIGHT,    1904,   BY 

THE  GRAFTON  PRESS 


First  Impression,  May,  1904 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

PRELIMINARY  WORDS  ....  1 
PROPHETIC  WORDS  ....  6 
THE  STATE  .  .  .  .  .10 

MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE     .  .  .  .56 

NATURALIZATION  .  .  .  .89 

IN  KB,  "  THE  Boss  "    .  .  .  .122 

BRUTALITY  AND  AVARICE  TRIUMPHANT  .  164 
Is  AVARICE  TRIUMPHANT?  .  .  .  196 

BY  ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL 

Is  OURS  THE  BEST  ?  ,  .  .    220 

LATEST  FROM  THE  FRONT        .  .  ,    261 

SOME  RESULTS  OF  CRIMINAL  MATERIALISM  .    278 


255112 


PRELIMINARY  WORDS. 

SEEMINGLY  a  large  majority  of  the  writers, 
who  during  the  last  two  or  three  decades  have 
written  about  our  political  condition ;  Na- 
tional, State  and  Municipal ;  have  been  afraid 
to  state  their  honest  convictions.  Many 
among  them  have  written  learnedly,  politely 
and  knowingly ;  but  they  have  been  content  to 
J>addle  around  startling  truths  as  though  they 
were  floating  in  a  sea  of  harmless  and  elegant 
literature,  with  their  facts  specially  sandpa- 
pered and  emeiy  wheeled  so  as  not  to  give 
oif ence  to  common  offenders  and  the  specially 
favored  criminal  classes, whose  backs  deserve  a 
lash  fashioned  out  of  the  rawest  possible  hide. 
If  in  the  history  of  a  nation,  there  ever  was  a 
time  when  honest  and  patriotic  lovers  of  their 
country  ought  to  speak  out  and  write  out,  that 
time  has  arrived  in  ours — where  the  whole 
political  system  is  rotten  to  the  core. 

The  taking  of  this  view  of  present  political 
conditions  has  caused  the  writer  to  resurrect 
from  their  repose  a  majority  of  the  papers 

1 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

which  appear  in  the  following  pages.  They 
were  written  from  a  completely  personal 
standpoint,  and  treat  of  governmental  affairs, 
formation,  administration  and  execution,  and 
are  heterodox  to  an  extent  bordering  upon  un- 
patriotic depravity ;  and  their  being  made  pub- 
lic is  calculated  to  send  the  average  statesman 
of  our  spoils  creating  and  spoils  taking  sort  into 
a  condition  of  convulsive  indignation.  That 
particular  class,  who,  with  the  assistance  of  the 
"  Criminal  Rich,"  *  rule  and  rob  in  accordance 
with  laws  of  their  own  making,  do  not  enjoy  a 
mirror  which  records  any  phase  of  their  vicious 
pursuits.  But  since  this  particular  looking- 
glass  has  not  been  fashioned  to  please  their 
views,  the  printing  has  been  ventured  upon 
without  the  hope  of  their  approval.  And, 
therefore  these  little  measures  of  heterodoxy 
are  thrust  into  the  light  without  apology,  or 

*  "  Criminal  Rich."  This  is  a  signification  in- 
vented by  William  Travers  Jerome  to  fittingly  char- 
acterize our  all-powerful  criminal  classes  who  have 
fattened  upon  the  results  of  their  crimes,  until  they 
have  become,  in  verity,  the  real  and  mighty  lords  of 
our  misgoverned  land. 

2 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

the  hope,  that  the  few  who  may  happen  to  read 
will  be  convinced.  Possibly,  however,  they 
may  realize  that  the  views  presented  may  indi- 
cate another  side  seldom  considered,  difficult 
to  understand,  and  never  dreamed  of  by  the 
average  citizen. 

At  present,  political  conditions  are  of  such  a 
degraded  nature,  that  the  dominant  object  of 
every  citizen  who  cares  for  decent  government 
and  the  general  reputation  of  his  country, 
ought  to  be,  to  investigate  and  ascertain  for 
himself  the  location  and  nature  of  the  weakV 
places  in  our  political  structure  which  have\ 
given  birth  to  the  disgraceful  degradations  \ 
which  beset  us,  and  then  to  assist  to  devise  I 
ways  and  means  to  eradicate  corrupt  practices'" 
by  curing  defects  of  system,  which  no  accu-  ' 
mulation  of  years  can  make  commendable. 

At  the  threshold,  those  who  investigate  will 
encounter  at  least  four  self-evident  malignant 
forces  with  enormous  power  for  evil  which  are 
in  active  operation.  (1)  The  immoral  influ-V 
ence  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  reaching  \ 
out  in  all  directions  as  in  the  ages  past,  and  cor- 
ruptly obtaining  political  power  and  untold 
property.  (2)  Manhood's  Suffrage,  upon  which 

3 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

no  honestly  administered  government  can 
exist.  (3)  Nearly,  practically,  unqualified,  un- 
restrained, unrestricted  immigration,  and  (4) 
wholesale  fraudulent  naturalization.  From 
these  gigantic  evil  forces  flow  the  all  potent 
fact,  that  we  are  a  nation  without  being  a  race ; 
and  the  all  powerful  and  overwhelming  result 
flowing  from  that  condition  is  a  monstrous  ag- 
gregation ofjkaleidoscopic  humanity,  a  mixture 
of  vice  producing  ignorance  and  unqualified 
self-seeking  unknown  to  history ;  and  without 
that  love  of  the  moral  side  which  ennobles  and 
is  necessary  for  the  development  of  all  of  those 
qualities  which  make  the  political  compact 
honorable  and  worthy  of  respect. 

This  mottled  mass  of  mixed  humanity  which 
afflicts  our  soil  is  absolutely  devoid  of  pride  of 
race  or  country  and  boasts  only  of  material 
aggrandizement  which  is  always  pushed  to  the 
front  and  made  to  pass  off  for  real  greatness. 

These  forces  for  evil,  and  many  others  which 
our  system  in  its  one  hundred  and  twenty-six 
years  of  existence  has  developed,  have  become 
the  all  powerful  factors  for  partisan  political 
uses.  Each  party  in  turn,  seeks  to  control  and 
profit  by  them  and  neither  will  ever  lend  its 

4 


OUR  POLITICAL   DEGRADATION 

assistance  to  any  attempt  to  effect  better  con- 
ditions ;  but  on  the  contrary,  is,  and  always  will 
be,  ready  for  the  creation  of  new  evils  which 
may  promise  to  further  the  potency  of  corrupt 
partisan  practices. 

The  great  question  of  the  moment  is,  or 
should  be,  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the 
other :  "  What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it  ?  " 
and  the  answer  is,  and  will  be  for  a  long  time 
to  come :  "  We  will  continue  our  cowardly  and 
unpatriotic  Inaction  until  the  tax  consuming 
hordes  and  their  adherents  have  succeeded  in 
sending  us  down  to  the  lowest  depths  of  abject 
subserviency  to  political  knaves  and  tyrants 
and  achieved  a  moral  degradation  beyond 
precedent."  Then  there  will  be  an  upheaval 
from  the  deep  down  bottom,  and  the  many 
germane  lessons  recorded  in  the  histories  of  the 
past  will  become  applicable.  But  those  who 
reflect,  know,  even  now,  upon  whose  heads 
the  deserved  punishment  will  fall. 

In  some  of  the  pages  that  follow  an  attempt 
has  been  made  to  make  known  a  few  of  the 
evils  and  weaknesses  which  appear  to  exist, 
and  they  are  submitted  without  reservation 
or  apology. 

5 


PEOPHETIC  WOKDS. 

AT  the  banquet  tendered  General  Miles 
at  the  Auditorium  a  couple  of  weeks  ago  one 
of  the  speeches  which  rang  in  the  ears  of  the 
auditors  not  only  that  night,  but  for  days  and 
days  thereafter,  was  a  little  gem  by  Judge 
Gresham,  which,  by  the  kindness  of  a  warm 
friend  and  admirer,  was  not  permitted  to  per- 
ish like  the  other  speeches  of  that  evening. 
It  is  herewith  presented  in  "the  art  preser- 
vative " : 

MB.  CHAIRMAN  :  The  army  represents 
force,  and  in  paying  deserved  honor  to  our 
distinguished  guest  to-night  we  assert  our 
belief  in  the  necessity  of  force  in  government. 
Not  the  force  which  enables  one  man,  or  a 
class,  or  a  minority  to  hold  in  subjection  the 
majority,  but  the  force  which  is  essential  in 
all  Governments  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
laws.  When  land  was  cheap  and  food  plenty 
the  people  were  contented,  but  population 
and  wealth  have  increased  at  unexampled 

6 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

rates,  and  steam  and  electricity  have  made  our 
life  more  rapid  and  intense  and  perhaps  less 
satisfactory.  Until  a  comparatively  recent 
date  the  people  of  this  country  were  simple  in 
their  tastes  and  modest  in  their  desires,  and 
those  who  were  charged  with  the  duty  of 
government  had  little  to  do.  Rights  of  per- 
son and  property  were  generally  respected. 
Such  times  do  not  severely  test  the  utility  or 
strength  of  institutions.  Young  as  we  still 
are  as  a  nation,  we  realize  that  force  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  overcome  lawlessness  and 
maintain  order. 

There  is  danger,  however,  that  too  much 
will  be  expected  of  the  executive  departments 
of  the  Nation  and  the  States.  If  the  duties 
of  citizenship  are  generally  neglected,  espe- 
cially by  those  who  are  most  interested  in 
the  maintenance  of  order,  the  army  of  the 
United  States  and  the  militia  of  the  States 
will  be  powerless  to  afford  protection. 

Municipal  government,  especially  in  our 
large  cities,  is  notoriously  bad — it  might  be 
called  a  failure.  It  is  largely  intrusted  to  men 
who,  if  capable,  are  not  trustworthy,  many  of 

7 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

them  desiring  loose  and  extravagant  adminis- 
tration that  they  may  profit  thereby.  This  has 
resulted  mainly  from  the  practice  of  electing 
municipal  officers  on  political  grounds.  Polit- 
ical considerations  should  not  have  weight 
at  such  times,  and  property  holders  are  largely 
responsible  for  the  prevailing  abuses.  They 
should  manifest  greater  concern  and  inde- 
pendence in  local  government. 

But  evils  are  seen  elsewhere  than  in  munic- 
ipal administration.  The  number  of  voters 
in  the  market  for  the  highest  bidder  has 
increased  at  a  rate  which  has  excited  grave 
apprehension  in  the  minds  of  good  people. 
The  prizes  in  our  political  contests  are  tempt- 
ing, and  the  bidding  for  votes  has  increased 
at  more  than  a  steady  pace.  Can  this  be 
stopped  ?  Will  it  continue  ?  If  it  does,  pop- 
ular government  and  all  the  blessings  that 
it  secures  will  perish. 

Political  leaders  may  be  allowed  to  be  prac- 
tical, within  limits,  but  they  should  not  be 
tolerated  when  detected  in  doing  things  which 
violate  the  plainest  principles  of  right  and 
wrong.  Too  many  so-called  respectable  men 

8 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

think,  or  act  as  if  they  thought,  it  was  less 
disreputable  to  buy  a  vote  than  to  sell  a  vote. 
Too  many  indulge  in  fair  pretenses  about  a 
free  ballot  and  an  honest  count  while  engaged 
in  concocting  fraudulent  schemes  for  carrying 
elections.  Those  who  spend  money  in  corrupt- 
ing voters  and  bribing  officers  are  more  dan- 
gerous enemies  to  the  Republic  than  were  the 
men  who  engaged  in  unsuccessful  rebellion 
against  it.  •  While  wrong,  the  latter  believed 
they  were  right  and  so  believing  fought  with 
unsurpassed  courage  to  the  end. 

When  the  public  judgment  becomes  satis- 
fied that  elections  cannot  be  relied  on  as  a 
means  of  ascertaining  the  will  of  the  people, 
and  that  money  and  fraud  control  the  suffrage, 
an  army  such  as  Grant  commanded  will  not 
be  able  to  save  us  from  a  fate  worse  than 
would  result  from  a  dissolution  of  the  Union. 
—From  the  Chicago  Herald,  Oct.  25,  1890. 


THE  STATE* 

IF  economy  in  the  administration  of  a 
Government  is  one  of  the  primary  objects  to 
be  attained,  the  organization  of  the  United 
States  based  upon  a  confederation  between 
separate  sovereignties  is  a  mistake  of  gigantic 
magnitude.  With  this  plan  of  political  com- 
pact, a  low  rate  of  expenditure  for  mainten- 
ance of  the  machinery  needed  to  carry  on 
the  business  affairs  of  a  nation  is  impossible. 
If  in  one  State,  disbursements  for  public  ex- 
penses are  carefully  supervised,  so  that  a  dol- 
lar's worth  of  service  or  material  is  received 
for  each  dollar  paid  out,  as  in  private  busi- 
ness affairs,  there  will  be  found  at  least  five 
for  one  where  the  opposite  rule  obtains,  and 
where  expenditures  are  made  without  any 
particular  reference  to  the  value  received, 
and  generally  in  direct  violation  of  the  com- 
monest principles  of  honesty  or  business  dis- 
cretion. 


*  Rewritten  in  1901. 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

In  public  affairs,  from  the  villages  or  the 
municipal  political  unit  up  through  all  grades 
to  the  Federal,  one  common  result  is  visible 
and  may  be  formulated  in  a  very  short  sen- 
tence, viz.,  The  largest  possible  expenditure 
for  the  smallest  possible  return.  The  Par- 
ties, Bosses,  Politicians  and  elective  office- 
holders while  proclaiming  in  their  platforms 
and  other  public  declarations,  the  most  lofty, 
ardent  and  patriotic  desires  for  honest  ex- 
penditures, usually  ask  and  vote  for  the  most 
extended  and  amplified  schemes  of,  in  part, 
dishonest  extravagance.  If  the  General  Gov- 
ernment builds  a  warship  it  costs  at  least  a 
third  more  than  elsewhere,  and  the  repairs 
made  to  old  ships  often  cost  as  much  as  new 
ones  of  the  same  class  in  other  countries. 
If  a  State  erects  a  Capitol  building,  the  tax 
payers  are  often  made  to  pay  from  two  to 
four  times  its  value.  That  at  Albany,  New 
York,  was  to  cost,  upon  first  estimates  not 
over  four  millions  of  dollars  and  to  be  com- 
pleted in  four  years.  The  politicians  of  both 
parties,  on  and  off,  have  "  worked "  it  for 
about  a  third  of  a  centuiy,  and  expended  on 
it  over  twenty-five  millions,  and  it  will,  prob- 

11 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

ably,  remain  in  their  hands  for  many  years 
more  at  an  annual  expense  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars,  and  when,  if  ever  it  may 
be  completed,  repairs  will  then  commence  at 
the  rate  of  an  hundred  thousand  dollars  or 
more  per  year,  and  continue  indefinitely.* 

*  Another  million  dollars  is  to  be  added  to  the 
enormous  sums  already  spent  upon  the  Capitol. 
The  Senate  is  crowding  out  the  State  Library  and 
the  Regents  of  the  University  will  attempt  to  have 
some  legislation  enacted  providing  new  quarters  for 
the  library. 

It  is  now  proposed  to  purchase  the  property  di- 
rectly west  of  the  Capitol,  as  far  as  Swan  street,  on 
which  to  erect  a  separate  building  for  the  use  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals,  the  Regents  and  the  library.  The 
estimated  cost  of  this  land  is  a  cool  million  dollars. 

Sergeant-at-Arms  Garrett  J.  Benson,  of  the  State 
Senate,  last  week  took  possession  of  the  rooms  of 
the  State  Library  upon  a  resolution  transferring 
these  rooms  to  the  Senate  for  committee  purposes, 
and  thus  it  is  that  the  library  needs  new  quarters. 

In  the  last  twenty-seven  years  the  Capitol  has 
cost  the  State  $20,000,000,  and  a  steady  stream  of 
appropriations  is  always  needed  to  complete  an  edi- 
fice which  it  almost  seems  never  will  be  complete. 
12 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

The  Court  House  in  the  City  of  New 
York  was  started  upon  an  estimated  expendi- 

The  Capitol  at  Washington,  which  covers  nearly 
twice  the  ground,  and  in  which  the  art  work  cannot 
be  surpassed,  cost  only  $10,000,000,  or  about  half 
the  price  already  expended  upon  the  Capitol  of  New 
York  State.  The  history  of  the  building  and  the 
jobbery  connected  with  it  could  not  be  told  within 
the  space  of  many  ponderous  volumes. 

THE  BEGINNINGS. 

An  act  was  passed  April  22,  1867,  appropriating 
$250,000  to  begin  the  work  on  the  Capitol,  and  the 
first  section  of  the  act  contained  this  clause  : 

"  But  no  part  of  the  amount  hereby  appropriated 
shall  be  expended,  nor  shall  the  Capitol  Commission 
incur  any  expense  on  account  of  the  said  Capitol, 
until  a  plan  of  the  Capitol  shall  be  adopted  and  ap- 
proved by  them  and  approved  by  the  Governor  not 
to  cost  more  than  $4,000,000  when  completed. " 

Shortly  after  this  first  appropriation  there  were 
rumors  that  all  was  not  as  it  should  be,  and  the 
Commissioners  of  1868  had  charges  of  irregularities 
and  even  corruption  made  against  them  from  time 
to  time.  The  Legislature  took  action,  and  several 
investigating  committees  were  appointed,  but  these 

13 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

ture  of  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  and 
cost  over  sixteen  millions.  The  City  Build- 
were  never  able  to  make  reports  positively  implicat- 
ing any  one  in  wrongdoing,  though  all  of  them 
recommended  reforms  in  the  management,  which 
were  adopted.  In  1871  an  act  was  passed  prohibit- 
ing the  payment  of  commissions  or  percentages  to 
contractors  or  others,  and  making  provisions  for 
other  stringent  regulations  designed  to  prevent 
speculation  or  corruption. 

A  MILLION  A  YEAR. 

From  1869  to  1880  a  steady  stream  of  money 
poured  into  the  capitol  building,  being  an  average 
of  a  million  a  year,  and  amounting  in  all  in  1880  to 
$11,439,000. 

A  report  of  the  New  Capitol  Commission,  pre- 
sented to  the  Legislature  on  January  24,  1879,  said 
that  for  $4,200,000  the  new  building  could  be  com- 
pleted and  furnished  by  January  1,  1881.  Since 
that  report  was  made  more  than  double  the  sum 
then  estimated  has  been  expended — nearly  $9,000,- 
000 — and  the  end  is  not  yet. 

LIST  OF  APPROPRIATIONS. 

Here  is  a  full  list  of  appropriations  for  the  pur- 
chase of  land  upon  which  the  Capitol  now  stands, 

14 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

ing  in  Philadelphia,  begun  in  1871,  was  to 
cost  about  five  millions,  is  not  nearly  corn- 


interest  paid  by  former  Commissioners,  and  for  con- 
struction, finishing  and  furnishing,  including  res- 
torations and  necessary  repairs  to  the  interior  and 
exterior  of  the  Capitol  building: 

Chap. 

1865—648 $10,000 

1867—485 250,000 

1868—830 250,000 

1869—645 275,000 

1869—822 125,000 

1870—492 1,300,000 

1871—715 650,000 

1872—733 1,000,000 

1873—760 1,000,000 

1874—323 1,000,000 

1875—634 1,000,000 

1876—193 800,000 

1877—336 500,000 

1878—  7 $300,000 

—252 700,000  1,000,000 

1879—  65 500,000 

—272 500,000  1,000,000 

1880—  33 100,000 

—138 1,500,000  1,600,000 

1881—  24 250,000 

—325 750,000  1,000,000 

1882—  7 250,000 

—295 1,000,000  1,250,000 

1883—  9 250,000 

—320 1,000,000  1,250,000 

1884—  37 1,000,000 

15 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

pleted,  lias  passed  the  twentieth  million,  and 
the  end  is  not  yet  in  sight.* 

1885—    4 250,000 

—180 30,000 

—330 750,000       1,030,000 

8  88—518 147,260 

—585 15,000  162,260 

1889 —  41,  shoring  up  Assembly  Chamber  ceiling  8,116 

1890—316 365,125 

1890 — 317,  providing  and  equipping  carpenter's 

shop  outside  of  building        .        .  6,000 

1891 —  2,  furnishing  committee  rooms       9,805 

—206 642,959         652,764 

1892—  81      .        „ 800,000 

1893—  15 700,000 

1894—  1 200,000 

—155 300,000  500,000 

1895— 400,000 

3896 75,000 

1896 810,000  885,000 

Grand  total $21,759,265 

This  table  does  not  comprise  the  cost  of  mainte- 
nance, salaries,  etc.,  which  is  now  about  seventy 
thousand  dollars  a  year. — From  the  Evening  Tele- 
gram, Dec.  25,  1896. 

*Af ter  thirty  years'  existence  the  Public  Buildings 
Commission  held  its  last  meeting  to-day.  On  Mon- 
day the  City  Hall  passes  to  the  control  of  the  city 
administration,  in  accordance  with  a  recent  act  of 
the  Legislature,  though  the  hall  is  not  yet  completed. 

16 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

In  the  slang  political  phraseology  of  the 
day,  as  explained  by  an  eminent  Celtic  mem- 
ber of  the  Tammany  Society  of  New  York, 
the  practical  politician  "  Knows  a  good  thing 
when  he  has  it,  proposes  not  to  let  go  and  to 

The  members  present  were  President  Perkins,  John 
S.  Stevens,  Thomas  E.  Gaskill,  William  H.  Wright, 
Richard  Peltz,  Charles  Seger,  Franklin  M.  Harris, 
Ex-Mayor  William  S.  Stokley  and  James  F.  Miles. 
President  Perkins  and  ex-Mayor  Stokley  are  the 
only  living  members  of  the  original  commission. 

Dying,  the  commission  did  what  it  had  always 
refused  to  do  living — accounted  for  the  money  it 
has  spent.  In  all  the  commission  has  used  $24,313,- 
455.43  upon  the  hall.  Its  requisitions  upon  Coun- 
cils have  aggregated  $41,150,736.29.  In  the  ex- 
penditures the  largest  single  item  is  $5,467,503.47 
for  marble,  which  is  followed  by  the  sum  of  $2,017,- 
299.72  for  dressed  stone  for  inside  finish.  The 
commission  spent  $3,990,211.46  in  fitting  up  rooms 
for  city  departments.  For  cast  and  wrought  iron, 
including  roofing,  $1,122,543.78  was  required.  The 
salaries  of  the  architects  were  $317,452.06,  and  law- 
yers got  $28,643.35.  Plumbers  and  gas  fitters  got 
$460,413.62.  Metal  work  on  the  tower  cost  $750,- 

17 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

work  it  for  all  it's  worth."  This  is  an  accurate 
statement  of  a  well-known  condition  which 
has  generally  obtained  wherever  American 
politicians  practice  their  trade. 

The  National  Government  and  forty-five 
State  organizations  afford  an  unexampled  field 
for  the  reaping  of  the  tax-eater  engaged  in 
the  occupation  of  making  the  administration 
of  public  affairs  a  venal  trade.  He  has  been 
so  successful  in  his  proscription  of  the  pro- 
ducing and  industrial  classes  from  all  partici- 
pation in  Government  business,  that  he  now 
<  has  the  entire  field  to  himself,  and  will  only 
occasionally  allow  others  joint  occupation 


537.01,  almost  twice  the  sum  expended  in  supplies 
for  maintenance — $396,431.38. 

Heating  and  ventilating  cost  $682,607.22  and  an 
additional  sum  of  $736,767.05  was  spent  for  <(  elec- 
tric light  installation,  etc."  The  four-faced  tower 
clock  represents  $27,960,  Painters  and  glaziers  got 
$351,490.62  and  $1,342,396.60  is  laid  at  the  door  of 
"  labor  and  watching,"  while  superintendent  and 
assistants"  drew  $317,452.06— New  York  Times, 

June  27,  1901. 

18 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

of  his  political  domain,  upon  his  own 
terms. 

To  make  the  average  American  believe 
that  there  are  deeply  seated,  not  to  say 
inherent,  weaknesses  in  his  favored  system 
would  be  a  hopeless  undertaking.  For  upon 
every  occasion  offered,  he  leaps  into  the  field 
of  political  controversy  with  the  crystallized 
ad  captandum  assertion :  "  We  have  the 
best,  the  greatest  and  purest  government  the 
sun  ever  shone  upon."  He  then  points  to 
the  unprecedented  material  progress  of  his 
country  and  the  enterprise  of  his  countrymen, 
flaps  a  pair  of  imaginary  wings  and  congrat- 
ulates himself  upon  having  successfully 
silenced  all  opposing  argument.  To  such  an 
individual  any  appeal  founded  upon  actual 
experience  and  well  authenticated  facts  can 
accomplish  but  little,  and  yet  it  is  a  fact  that 
those  who  run,  even  though  they  may  observe 
but  little,  may  read. 

The  yearly  crop  of  vicious  and  unwise  sins 
born  of  our  manifold  lawmaking  bodies  is 
beyond  exact  enumeration.  A  consolidated 
form  of  government  would  have  prevented 

19 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

this  annual  congestion  of  crude  legislative  acts, 
and  relieved  the  Nation  from  the  expense 
of  having  them,  passed  and  the  pernicious 
consequences  of  their  existence.  Where  in. 
the  name  of  common  sense,  public  policy  or 
logic,  let  us  ask,  does  there  exist  the  necessity 
for  so  many  lawmaking  bodies  and  so  many 
laws? 

Up  to  this  time  we  have  succeeded  in 
mustering  into  power,  in  full  working  order, 
forty-five  legislatures,  having  jurisdiction 
over  as  many  separate  sovereignties.  A  large 
majority  of  these  meet  annually  and  a  small 
minority  once  in  two  years.  When  all  the 
lawmaking  machines  are  working  under  high 
pressure,  up  to  full  speed,  the  amount  of  illy 
or  digested  and  pernicious  legislative  acts 
turned  out  per  year  cannot  possibly  be  com- 
prehended or  fairly  understood.  When  the 
general  unfitness  and  ignorance  of  the  average 
legislator  is  taken  into  consideration,  the 
marvel  is  that  the  so-called  "  Old  Ship  of 
State  "  sails  on  as  well  as  she  does. 

Over  all  these  separate  organizations,  with 
limited  powers,  presides  the  Federal  Govern- 

20 


OUK   POLITICAL   DEGRADATION 

ment  with  its  yearly  assembly  of  lawmakers, 
who  usually  sit  for  seven  months,  at  an  enor- 
mous cost  to  the  Nation  and  accomplish  often 
only  pernicious  results.  The  scope  of  their 
legislation  is  often  limited  to  appropriations 
for  support  of  the  Government  and  liberal 
bestowal  of  public  monies  in  many  directions 
where  not  needed.  Reformatory  measures 
in  the  interest  of  economical  administration 
and  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  people  are 
seldom  earnestly  undertaken.  Occasionally, 
to  satisfy  public  clamor,  a  spasmodic  demon- 
stration, seemingly  in  the  interest  of  the 
whole  Nation,  is  made,  but  it  seldom  gets 
further  than  the  gong  stage  of  existence,  and 
then  sinks  into  a  somnolent  condition  from 
which  there  is  no  awakening,  and  the  average 
Congressman  and  Senator  resumes  his  reflec- 
tions upon  partisan  schemes  and  the  ways 
and  means  applicable  to  his  re-election. 

These  numerous  separate  governments  are 
popularly  supposed  to  be  of  one  people  whose 
citizens  hold  themselves  out  to  the  world  as 
the  people  of  one  nation,  when  in  reality  they 
are  in  forty-five  separate  parts,  each  fostering 
and  having  separate  interests,  all  more  or 

21 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

less  jealous  of  each  other  and  taking  consid- 
erable pride  in  their  separate  interests  and 
State  rights.  These  independent  interests 
assert  themselves  upon  many  occasions  and 
often  prevent  the  enactment  of  measures 
which  would  result  in  the  greatest  good  of 
the  greatest  number.  One  State  produces 
iron,  another  silver,  a  third  grows  wool, 
while  a  fourth  manufactures  cotton  goods; 
each  demands  of  the  General  Government 
sufficient  protection,  or  coddling  of  some  sort, 
to  enable  it  to  maintain  fictitious  or  abnormal 
values  for  its  products. 

In  this  direction,  one  State  standing  alone, 
unaided,  would  make  but  little  headway  with 
National  legislation;  but  they  usually  pool 
their  schemes  and  make  a  general  advance  all 
along  the  line  and  in  the  end  accomplish  the 
desires  of  each  section.  Neither  the  consum- 
ers of  the  whole  country  are  benefited  by  this 
special  legislation  in  the  interest  of  sections ; 
nor  are  the  people  generally  in  the  States 
directly  interested  better  off  for  this  legisla- 
tive partiality,  which  they  are  often  made  to 
believe  specially  affects  them  for  the  better. 
The  large  producers,  manufacturers,  specula- 

22 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

tors  and  middlemen  are  the  classes  that  are 
made  to  thrive,  while  the  general  average  of 
men  and  women  who  constitute  the  great 
bodies  of  communities  remain  stationary  or 
fall  behind  in  the  great  race  for  a  reasonable 
share  of  the  world's  possessions.  It  is  a  well- 
settled  fact  that  a  rule  has  obtained  in  nearly 
all  the  States,  that  their  representatives  in 
Congress  must  represent  local  (often  less 
than  State)  interests  first,  and  National  after- 
wards, provided  they  do  not  happen  to 
interfere  with  the  supposed  interests  of  one  of 
the  forty-five  sovereignties,  or  in  other  words 
the  formula  is,  the  State  before  the  Nation. 

It  is  a  question  for  publicists  to  decide 
whether  as  time  goes  on  and  the  States  be- 
come more  powerful  by  reason  of  increased 
wealth,  and  dense  population,  the  accumula- 
tion of  material  interests  of  various  kinds, 
and  State  pride,  will  not  with  age  crystallize 
into  an  offensive  and  arrogant  individuality 
impatient  of  even  the  little  control  the  Fed- 
eral Government  now  has  over  them.  This 
is  an  important  question  not  apparent  at  this 
period  of  our  history,  but  sure  to  present 
itself  in  the  near  future. 

23 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

In  February,  1886,  I  travelled  west  of  the 
Missouri  River  in  company  with  a  wealthy, 
intelligent  and  influential  citizen  of  one  of 
the  "  Silver  States."  In  discussing  the 
•'*  Bland  Silver  Bill "  with  him,  he  said  with- 
out any  reservation  whatever,  that  if  Con- 
gress repealed  it,  the  silver  producing  States 
would  be  warranted  in  setting  up  a  govern- 
ment of  their  own.  The  particular  point 
adorning  this  statement  is  this :  The  gentle- 
man who  made  it  was  born  in  New  England 
and  was  a  field  officer  of  one  of  the  two 
regiments  raised  in  his  State  for  the  purpose 
of  putting  down  Secession  in  the  Southern 
States.  To  his  mind  States  Rights  were 
wrong  in  the  South,  but  right  in  the  West. 

These  forty-five  sets  of  law-making  ma- 
chines with  which  the  States  are  equipped 
have  a  judiciary,  generally  elective,  separate 
bodies  of  laws,  differing  in  many  respects 
from  those  of  the  other  States,  and  requiring 
separate  sets  of  law  and  executive  officers  to 
see  them  executed,  form  an  unnecessary  bur- 
den which  is  more  expensive  than  any  single 
military  establishment  in  Europe ;  and  the 
inconvenience  flowing  from  the  want  of 

24 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

uniformity  of  laws  between  the  States  is  one 
of  the  largest  among  the  world's  unknowable 
quantities. 

Take  as  examples  the  variety  of  laws  relat- 
ing to  divorce,  collection  of  debts,  statutes  of 
limitation,  rates  of  interest,  transfers  of  real 
estate,  relating  to  trusts,  penalties  for  crimes, 
division  into  a  variety  of  grades  of  the  well 
defined  crime  of  murder,  the  formation  of, 
and  laws  applicable  to  corporations.  These 
are  only  a  small  number  out  of  the  many 
examples  that  might  be  quoted  to  illustrate 
our  confusion  among  the  statutes  and  legal 
remedies.  The  estate  of  a  gentleman  who 
died  in  New  York  in  1890  is  now  (1898)  in 
course  of  settlement  in  ten  different  States 
by  the  employment  of  as  many  different  firms 
of  attorneys.  The  amount  of  assets  left 
when  all  of  these  different  firms  have  com- 
pleted their  ministrations  may  possibly  be 
enough  to  furnish  food  for  reflection  for  the 
heirs  who  may  happen  to  be  of  a  reflective  turn 
of  mind,  but  may  not  materially  swell  their 
possessions.  In  England,  France,  Italy  or 
Germany  a  single  firm  of  attorneys  would 
have  sufficed. 

25 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

The  needlessly  expensive  judiciary  organ- 
ization inflicted  upon  this  people  through 
the  numerous  State  organizations,  is  of  enor- 
mous magnitude.  The  people  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  generally,  and  those  of  the 
City  of  New  York,  in  particular,  bear  re- 
markable burdens  of  this  exceptional  abuse. 
For  England  and  Wales  the  Court  of  Queens 
Bench,  consisting  of  fifteen  Judges,  does  the 
same  work,  excluding  Chancery  cases,  for 
twenty-nine  millions  of  inhabitants,  that  it 
takes  seventy-six  trial  Judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  to  perform  for  the  seven  and  a  quarter 
millions  of  the  State  of  New  York.  In  the 
whole  of  that  Commonwealth  there  are  two 
hundred  and  thirty- two  Justices  of  Courts 
of  Record,  besides  the  numerous  Civil  and 
Criminal  petty  Justices  of  the  cities  and 
towns.  The  outlay  for  this  judiciary  estab- 
lishment is  very  great,  while  the  return  in 
the  way  of  prompt  and  reliable  administra- 
tion of  the  laws  is  most  unsatisfactory.* 

*  The  following  items  show  the  result  of  an  attempt 
to  ascertain  the  exact  cost,  to  the  tax  producers,  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  for  the  administration  of 

26 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

In  this,  as  in  all  other  instances  involved 
in  public  administration,  the  citizen  is  com- 
pelled to  pay  the  highest  price  for  faulty  and 
inadequate  returns ;  but  as  usual  consoles 
himself  with  the  thought  that  he  is  no  worse 
off  in  this  particular  respect  than  in  many 

Justice  and  execution  of  State  laws  for  the  year 

1901. 

New  York  City— Greater  New  York,         .  .    $1,150,400.00 

New  York  County    "           "        "           .  1,678,322.00 

Kings                "          "            "         "            .  620,400.00 

Queens            «          "           "        "           .  94,870.00 

Kichmond        "          "           "        "           .  46,135.00 

58  Counties  at  $25,000 each 1,400,000.00 

Paid  from  the  State  Treasury           .        .  .        974,264.23 

Total  .  .  .  $5,964,391.23 
The  average  put  down  for  the  58  counties  was 
based  upon  official  reports  from  eight  counties,  in 
neither  of  which  is  situated  either  of  the  large 
cities  outside  of  the  Greater  New  York.  From  other 
information  obtained  from  various  unofficial  sources, 
the  compiler  was  led  to  believe  that  the  average 
stated  is  under  rather  than  over  the  actual  amounts 
paid. 

An  investigation  in  relation  to  the  cost  of  main- 
taining the  various  courts  in  England  and  Wales, 
and  the  high  Appellate  courts  for  the  United  King- 

27 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

others,  and  he  meekly  folds  his  arms  and 
makes  no  effort  at  reform. 

The  administration  of  Criminal  law  is  more 
defective,  irregular  and  unreliable  than  that 
of  the  Civil.  What  with'  the  difficulty  of 
obtaining  intelligent  and  honest  jurors  who 

dom,  including  India,  shows  rather  startling  results 
in  favor  of  English  methods.  Of  course  these  results 
are  in  the  interest  of  economy  (the  tax  producer)  and 
not  the  leeching  political  parasite  or  the  party  judge 
fishing  votes  for  another  term. 

The  official  items  making  the  total  are  so  valu- 
able, for  use  in  the  way  of  comparison,  that  they  are 
given  entire. 

Great  Office  of  the  Crown               ....  £22,500.00 

Appellate  Tribunals,  House  of  Lords           .        .  34,000.00 

Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council    .        .  2,700.00 

Supreme  Court  of  Judicature — Court  of  Appeal  32,650.00 

High  Court  of  Justice— Chancery  Division       .  35,000.00 

Queens  Bench  Division 86,900.00 

Probate,  Divorce  and  Admiralty  Division  .        .  10,000.00 

Bankruptcy  Division 5,000.00 

Crown  Office — House  of  Lords    ...»  1,733.00 

Lord  Chancellor's  Office 6,886.00 

Chancery  Courts    .                141,806.00 

Supreme  Court 319,010.00 

Probate,  Divorce  and  Admiralty  Division  .        .  66,620.00 

Bankruptcy  Department 30,832.00 

Lunacy  Commission 57,860.00 

City  Courts— London    .        .        .        .        .       •  14,625.00 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

cannot  be  influenced ;  prosecuting  attorneys 
in  full  sympathy  with  the  earnest  perform- 
ance of  their  duties ;  Judges  with  requisite 
experience,  and  vexatious  appeals  so  indulg- 
ently permitted,  we  are  in  a  lamentable  con- 
dition of  uncertainty  which  the  vicious 
classes  regard  as  especially  advantageous  to 

County  Courts— England  and  Wales     .        .        .  120,925.00 

Metropolitan  Co.  Courts— London        .        .        .  25,600.00 

Police  Courts,  City  of  London               .        .        .  8,650.00 

Metropolitan  Police  Courts            ....  47,250.00 


870,647.00 

Amount,  carefully  estimated,  for  all  other  payments 
for  England  and  Wales  ....     400,000.00 

£1,270,647.00 
(In  dollars  at  4.86—6,175,344.20.) 

The  items  named  are  from  official  reports  and 
correct.  The  estimated  amount  of  £400,000.00  to 
cover  all  other  expenses  incurred  in  relation  to  the 
administration  of  justice,  in  England  and  Wales,  is 
of  the  wholesale  sort,  and  certainly  large  enough  to 
cover  all  items  not  enumerated.  The  compiler 
believes  it  is  much  above  the  amount  required.  Prob- 
ably by  about  £100,000.00.  By  comparing  the 
totals  it  will  be  seen  that  while  the  7,268,012  inhab- 
itants of  the  State  of  New  York  in  1901  paid 
for  the  administration  of  justice  $5,964,391.23. 

29 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

their  pursuits;  and  which  has  come  to  be 
regarded  as  an  almost  settled  rule,  that  those 
among  the  great  offenders  "the  Criminal 
Rich"  who  are  able  to  make  a  liberal  expen- 
diture of  money  at  the  right  time  and  in  the 
right  quarter,  particularly  if  they  happen  to 
be  politically  influential,  are  seldom  punished, 

the  29,001,018  of  England  and  Wales  maintained 
their  judicial  establishment  at  a  cost  of  about 
$6,175,544.20,  certainly  not  more  and  probably  con- 
siderably less.  This  amount  pays  the  entire  cost  of 
all  the  legal  business  of  every  kind,  name  and 
nature  of  the  every  day  kind  needed  for  the  entire 
population  of  England  and  Wales,  and  all  of  the 
Appellate  business  for  the  British  Empire.  These 
figures  bring  one  question  at  least  into  great  promi- 
nence :  Why  should  the  people  of  the  State  of  New 
York  for  their  law  expenses  pay  about  four  times 
the  per  capita  amount  of  the  people  of  England  and 
Wales  ?  Is  it  because  of  the  superior  quality  of  the 
justice  their  courts  deal  out  to  them— or  what  ? 
Let  the  overflowing  calendars  of  their  Appellate 
Courts  answer  that  question.  No  other  answer  is 
needed  and  explanatory  comment  would  be  superflu- 
ous. 

30 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

although   sometimes    convicted ;    while   the 
unfortunate   pauper   who   steals   to  prevent 
physical   suffering,  is   convicted   as  soon  as 
arraigned.       In  many  parts  of  the  South  and 
West,  fortunately,   "  Lynch  Law  "  with  its      j 
speedy  meting  out  of  justice  does  something      / 
for   the   reputation   of    our    country,    in    a     f 
direction  where   fair   repute   is   very  much     f 
needed. 

In  a  recent  report  carefully  compiled  by  a 
reliable  authority,  it  appears  that  in  1882 
there  were  committed  in  the  United  States 
1266  wilful  murders;  ninety- three  of  the 
murderers  were  executed  according  to  law 
and  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  were 
lynched,  leaving  1055  unwhipped  of  that  de- 
gree of  justice  to  which  they  were  entitled. 
The  proportion  adequately  punished  accord- 
ing to  law  was  eight  and  a  fraction  to  the 
hundred.  Do  these  statistics  show  even  a 
color  of  punishment  needed  for  the  proper 
protection  of  life  ?  On  the  contrary,  do  they 
not  prove  a  direct  incentive  to  do  more  mur- 
der ?  An  examination  of  very  imperfect 
statistics  shows,  that  notwithstanding  we  have 
the  most  numerous  and  expensive  judiciary 

31 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

system  for  administration  of  criminal  laws 
known,  this  offense  is  on  the  increase.  The 
following  from  the  summary  lately  com- 
piled from  reliable  sources  shows  startling 
results : 

THE  NATION'S  HOMICIDAL  RECORD. 

A  "  murder  map  "  of  the  United  States  may  be 
fitly  characterized  as  the  delight  of  the  pessimist, 
for  it  shows  that  we  are  not  as  humane,  law-abid- 
ing, or  civilized  as  we  think  we  are.  In  fact,  a 
murder  map  showing  the  number  of  murders  com- 
mitted in  each  State  might  easily  impress  one  who 
does  not  take  into  account  our  vast  area  and  popu- 
lation with  the  notion  that  we  are  a  race  of  barba- 
rians and  are  still  living  in  the  dark  ages. 

The  average  number  of  murders  committed  an- 
nually in  the  States  of  the  Union  during  the  last 
decade  is  as  follows: 


Alabama 

.    461 

Idaho           •        . 

.      27 

Arizona       .        • 

.      43 

Illinois 

.    315 

Arkansas     .        . 

.    305 

Indiana 

.    228 

California    . 

.    422 

Iowa     . 

.    202 

Colorado 

.    252 

Kansas  . 

.    235 

Connecticut 

.      73 

Kentucky    . 

.    398 

Delaware     . 

.      48 

Louisiana    . 

.    358 

Dist.  of  Columbia 

.      24 

Maine  .        . 

.      18 

Florida 

.    157 

Maryland     . 

.    280 

Georgia 

.    381 

Massachusetts    . 

.      96 

OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 


Michigan     . 

.    205 

Oregon 

.      79 

Minnesota   . 

.    159 

Pennsylvania 

.    312 

Mississippi  . 

.    317 

Rhode  Island 

.      52 

Missouri 

.    362 

South  Carolina  . 

.    221 

Montana 

.      90 

South  Dakota     . 

.      45 

Nebraska     . 

.    168 

Tennessee    . 

.    408 

Nevada 

.      39 

Texas  . 

.  1,021 

New  Hampshire 

9 

Utah    . 

.      57 

New  Jersey 

.    120 

Vermont      .        . 

6 

New  Mexico 

.      58 

Virginia 

.    305 

New  York    . 

.    512 

Washington 

.    102 

North  Carolina 

.    285 

West  Virginia    . 

.      87 

North  Dakota     . 

.      29 

Wisconsin    . 

.    154 

Ohio     . 

.    332 

Wyoming     . 

.      22 

The  feature  of  this  table  that  will  attract  especial 
notice  is  the  disclosure  that  the  West  and  South 
lead  in  murders.  It  is  noted  that  one-tenth  of  all 
the  murders  in  the  United  States  are  committed  in 
Texas,  a  fact  which  disproves  the  contention  of 
criminologists  that  crime  is  in  proportion  to  density 
of  population.  It  is  also  noted  that  Illinois,  with  a 
population  of  5,800,000,  averaged  a  less  number  of 
homicides  annually  than  Mississippi,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  only  1,650,000.  Vermont,  with  a  popula- 
tion of  350,000  has  only  six  murders  a  year,  while 
Nevada,  with  a  population  of  only  60,000  has  an 
average  of  thirty-nine  homicides  annually. 

With  a  homicidal  record  of  10,000  murders  a 
year  in  the  United  States,  the  task  that  is  before 

33 


DUE   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

the  church,  the  schoolhouse,  the  home,  and  the 
State  is  big  enough  to  stagger  human  optimism  and 
Christian  courage. — Chicago  Times  Herald,  Novem- 
ber, 1900. 

Another  perplexing  evil  incident  to  the 
States  organization  is  a  vast  accumulation 
of  unnecessary  laws.  Take  any  one  year 
when  all  the  States  have  had  legislative 
sessions  and  supplement  their  acts  by  those 
of  Congress,  and  we  shall  find  that  alto- 
gether, they  have  passed  more  legislative 
acts  in  number  and  extent  of  words  in  one 
year,  than  England,  the  German  Empire, 
France,  Italy,  Austria-Hungary,  Belgium 
and  Holland  have  in  twenty.  In  this 
direction  it  is  barely  possible  that  we  might 
venture  still  farther  and  say  that  our  legis- 
lative bodies,  State  and  National,  since  the 
formation  of  our  government  have  passed 
more  acts  in  number,  composed  of  a  greater 
number  of  words,  than  all  the  civilized  peo- 
ples of  Western  Europe  since  they  became 
nations. 

As  an  example  of  the  lawmaking  abuse, 
let  us  refer  to  the  New  York  Legislature 
of  1867,  when  it  enacted  2494  pages  of 

34 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

public  and  private  acts,  while  those  for  the 
government  of  the  British  people  enacted 
by  the  Parliament  of  that  year  were  con- 
tained in  a  moderate  sized  volume.  It  is 
safe  to  say  that  at  least  two-thirds  of  the 
New  York  enactments  were  unnecessary, 
special,  personal,  and  pernicious  in  their 
effects,  and  ought  not  to  have  been  passed. 
The  greater  portion  of  this  peculiar  charac- 
ter of  legislation  is  unknown  in  other  coun- 
tries. It  was  born  of  manhood  suffrage, 
and  fortunately  for  the  rest  of  the  world 
is  confined  within  the  borders  of  our  own 
territories.  Where  there  is  such  a  quan- 
tity and  diversity  of  legislation,  can  there 
be  economy  in  administration?  Does  the 
existence  of  so  many  sets  of  laws  and 
the  machinery,  executive,  administrative  and 
judicial,  needed  to  carry  them  into  effect 
meet  any  proposition  in  favor  of  economy  ? 
Are  they  not  an  insurmountable  obstacle 
that  can  only  be  removed  by  a  change 
of  system  ?  Is  it  not  a  self-evident  propo- 
sition that  a  nation  should  have  but  one 
lawmaking  body,  and  is  it  not  true  that 
every  duplicate  constitutes  an  item  of  un- 

35 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

necessary  expense,  and  that  its  acts  often 
result  in  oppressive  and  extravagant  pub- 
lic expenditures  which  maintain  intriguers, 
demagogues,  henchmen  of  parties  and  drones 
at  the  expense  of  the  tax  producer  ? 

As  soon  as  a  new  State  is  admitted  to  the 
Union  and  a  new  legislature  goes  into  opera- 
tion, an  additional  focal  point  of  corruption 
is  established ;  and  within  a  week  from  the 
time  it  opens  its  doors  for  business,  a  colony 
of  organized  spoilsmen  consisting  of  profes- 
sional lobbyists,  bosses  and  politicians,  and 
"  criminal  rich "  or  their  representatives 
appear.  This  evil  force  is  composed  of 
individuals  not  engaged  in  legitimate  occupa- 
tions, who  are  averse  to  all  kinds  of  honest 
industry,  and  regard  the  numerous  legisla- 
tive halls  of  the  Nation  as  exchanges  for  the 
promotion  of  robbery,  jobbery  and  rascality 
generally :  in  the  interest  of  corrupt  per- 
sonal and  corporate  schemes,  which  permit 
the  promoters  to  rob  communities  according 
to  law  without  risk,  and  enable  them  to 
accumulate  fortunes  without  honest  effort.* 

*  THE  PENNSYLVANIA  LEGISLATURE. 

THE  Pennsylvania  Legislature,   which  recently 
36 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Another  phase  of  the  legislative  evil  is 
the  matter  of  course  creation  of  unnecessary 
offices  at  the  dictation  of  politicians,  which 
are  bestowed  upon  unworthy  persons  as  re- 
wards for  corrupt  partisan  service.  The  ex- 
tent to  which  this  abuse  has  been  practiced 
in  the  State  of  New  York  can  be  hardly 

adjourned,  seems  to  have  left  behind  it  quite  as  dis- 
graceful an  odor  as  that  which  characterised  the 
sessions  and  departure  of  its  Republican  brother  of 
Illinois. 

The  Harrisburg  Patriot  draws  the  following  bill 
of  indictment  against  the  Pennsylvania  combina- 
tion : — 

The  Legislature  has  gone  away  from  this  city  and 
leaves  behind  : 

A  destroyed  Capitol. 

A  depleted  Treasury. 

A  deficit  of  $3,500,000. 

A  church,  the  occupation  of  which,  in  rent  and 
repairs,  cost  as  much  as  the  erection  of  the  struc- 
ture. 

A  revenue  measure,  which  it  is  "  calculated  "  will 
put  $1,000,000  into  the  Treasury,  but  will  not  yield 
$100,000. 

37 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGKADATION 

understood  by  the  heedless  citizen  who  boasts 
that  he  takes  no  interest  in  politics.  In  1887, 
a  new  court  of  Criminal  Jurisdiction  only 
was  created  for  the  City  of  New  York  against 
the  judgment  and  protests  of  several  of  the 
Judges  of  the  local  Criminal  Courts,  who 
stated  publicly  that  their  tribunals  were 

A  "revenue"  measure  which  will  give  the  Sena- 
torial Beer  Trust  a  monopoly  of  the  beer  brewed  in 
the  State. 

A  record  of  junkets  never  before  approached, 

A  record  of  jobbery  in  bills  of  expenses  of  inves- 
tigating and  special  committees. 

A  record  of  thievery  in  placing  upon  salary  lists 
men  who  perform  no  duties  and  who  do  not  appear 
in  official  lists  of  employees. 

Eecorded  refusal  to  hear  witnesses  to  investiga- 
tions. 

Eecorded  defense  of  the  accused,  even  to  the  verge 
of  perjury  in  investigations. 

A  record  of  utter  and  entire  worthlessness,  dishon- 
esty and  disregard  of  public  duty. 

A  record  of  bribery,  blackmail  and  perversion  of 
Justice. 

All  these  the  departed  legislature  leaves  behind, 
38 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

equal  to  the  discharge  of  the  current  busi- 
ness, and  it  was  only  necessary  for  the  prose- 
cuting attorney  to  bring  pending  cases  to 
trial  in  order  to  have  them  speedily  disposed 
of.  In  spite  of  these  statements,  the  new 
court  was  organized.  It  was  of  a  party  and 
seventy-five  thousand  dollars  a  year  was 

but  their  memory  will  cling  to  it  forever.  No  man 
who  was  prominent  or  even  interested  in  jobs  and 
thievery  can  escape  the  odium  which  rascality  casts 
upon  the  rascal.  These  persons  are  well  known  to 
their  constituents,  and,  sanctimonious  as  some  of 
them  are,  they  will  not  be  forgotten  when  the  peo- 
ple are  again  importuned  to  give  them  office. 
[Date  forgotten.] 

THE  KENTUCKY  LEGISLATURE. 

FOR  violence  to  the  very  vitality  of  Americanism  ; 
for  abandonment  of  every  principle  of  Democracy  ; 
for  contempt  of  even  the  semblance  of  liberty  ;  for 
the  abolition  of  every  individual  and  social  right 
upon  which  republicanism  is  based ;  for  flagrant 
scorn  of  even  the  form  of  fair  play  and  even  the 
shadow  of  decency  ;  for  absolute  and  open  desertion 
of  public  duties  and  abject  and  malevolent  prostitu- 

39 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

added  to  the  tax  list  for  a  new  political  lux- 
ury of  doubtful  value.  This  single  example, 
out  of  many,  will  suffice  to  show  how  easy  it 
is  for  a  political  party  in  power  to  perpetrate, 
out  of  whole  cloth,  a  wholly  unnecessary  and 
immoral  act,  in  the  interest  of  corrupt  party 
politics.  It  is  quite  safe  to  assert  that  fully 

tion  to  partisan  plunder  ;  for  arrogant  usurpation, 
in  the  name  of  spoils,  of  the  sacred  functions  of 
representative  government  and  their  distortion  to 
oligarchic  despotism — for  all  these  things  the  record 
of  this  Legislature  is  not  only  unparalleled,  but 
unapproached.  It  is  unapproached  in  all  the  dreams 
of  the  federalism  of  Hamilton's  day.  It  is  unap- 
proached in  all  the  tendencies  of  Toryism  andWhig- 
ism.  It  is  unapproached  in  all  the  orgies  of  carpet- 
bagism,  militarism,  returning-boardism,  Brownlow- 
ism,  reconstructionism,  Lodgeism,  in  the  state  and 
national  annals  of  this  country.  The  maddest  usurpa- 
tions of  state  government  in  the  South  over  the 
rights  of  the  disfranchised  whites,  the  most  des- 
perate efforts  of  the  Republicans  in  Congress  to 
build  a  party  dynasty  upon  the  suffrage  of  the  newly 
emancipated  blacks,  the  wildest  riots  of  the  fanati- 
cal freaks  of  Kansas  and  South  Carolina,  never 

40 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

ninety  per  cent  of  these  nefarious  schemes,  are 
in  the  nature  of  the  bestowal  of  rewards  upon 
undeserving  and  worthless,  and  often  vagrant 
recipients,  hangers  on  who  have  performed 
service  of  a  questionable  nature,  for  the  venal 
bosses  of  the  party  in  power. 

Another  defect  incident   to   our  peculiar 

approached  the  record  of  this  Kentucky  Legislature 
in  its  plunge  from  democracy  to  despotism. —  Louis- 
ville Courier- Journal,  March  22,  1898. 

A  POLITICAL  QUAGMIRE. 

Rhode  Island's  Majority  Tied  Hand  and  Foot. 
Providence,  R.  L,  March  16,  1903.— A  first 
impression  of  the  political  situation  to-day  in  the 
State  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  plantations, 
reinforced  by  a  mass  of  facts  gathered  from  first 
sources  and  the  matured  opinions  of  reputable  pro- 
fessional and  public  men,  is  this  : 

The  pitiable  figure  of  a  Governor  elected  by  a  big 
majority,  powerless  and  contemptuously  flouted  by 
a  boss  who  keeps  an  office  in  the  State  House  and 
dares  anyone  to  remove  him  ;  a  bribe-taking  elec- 
torate in  many  of  the  country  districts  lost  to  all 
sense  of  shame  and  honor  and  sunk  to  the  lowest 

41 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

formation  is  the  want  of  uniformity  in,  and 
frequency  and  expense  of  numerous  elections. 
The  practical  logic  of  this  abuse  is,  that  the 
officials  should  be  changed  as  often  as  pos- 
sible, in  order  that  our  public  political  busi- 
ness shall  be  administered  by  people  who 
know  absolutely  nothing  about  it.  When  a 

depths  of  political  and  civic  degradation  ;  corrupt 
party  leaders,  Eepublican  and  Democratic,  who 
speak  openly  and  unblushingly  of  debauching  the 
electors,  and  whose  moral  senses  are  so  blunted  that 
they  see  nothing  heinous  in  the  crime  ;  a  vicious 
minority  rule  with  brutal  disregard  to  the  majority ; 
a  curious  scheme  of  government  that  gives  to  twenty 
small  towns,  with  less  than  one-fourth  the  popula- 
tion of  Providence,  a  majority  of  the  members  of 
the  Senate,  and  through  that  body  the  control  of 
the  State  ;  in  brief,  a  political  quagmire. 

The  underlying  cause  for  these  conditions  is 
found  in  the  plan  of  unequal  and  unjust  representa- 
tion which  gives  to  the  towns  (rotten  boroughs)  the 
control  of  the  Legislative  branch  of  the  Govern- 
ment. It  would  be  hard  to  contrive  a  better  scheme 
to  strike  down  a  Government  of  the  people.  The 
three  branches — the  legislative,  the  judicial  and  the 

42 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

President  becomes  fairly  conversant  with  his 
duties  and  useful  to  the  people,  he  is,  or  may 
be,  turned  out,  unless  his  party  permits  him 
through  a  renomination  to  succeed  himself  by 
a  re-election.  In  States,  Cities  and  Towns, 
the  conditions  are  even  worse  for,  in  many 
instances,  officials  are  changed  as  often  as 

executive — are  not  independent  except  in  theory  ; 
the  legislative  controls  all  three.  Gen.  Charles  R, 
Bray  ton  (the  Republican  boss)  owns  the  controlling 
branch,  and  his  ends  are  wrought  chiefly  through 
the  Senate. 

Under  the  present  Constitution  the  Governor  is  a 
negligible  quantity ;  he  has  powers  over  legislative 
measures  and  cannot  thwart  the  will  of  the  boss. 
The  Senate  is  Republican  and  has  been  for  years. 
The  Governor  is  a  Democrat.  The  executive  depart- 
ment is  no  longer  a  vital  part  of  the  State  Govern- 
ment, and  the  Governor  sits  in  his  great  suite  of 
offices  with  no  one  to  do  him  honor,  without  power 
or  even  the  symbol  of  power;  what  one  observer 
has  called  "an  administrative  mummy ";  neither 
his  wishes  nor  commands  avail  when  they  run  counter 
to  the  plans  of  Bray  ton. 

For  some  years  the  population  of  the  towns  and 
43 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

once  a  year.  The  constitutional  Monarchies 
have  many  advantages  in  this  respect.  When 
they  have  incurred  the  expense  of  getting 
their  reigning  families  well  housed,  supplied 
with  estates,  jewels  and  appropriately  ap- 
parelled, they  are  kept  in  harness  until  some 
return  is  made  to  the  people  for  their  salary. 


villages  of  the  State  has  been  stationary  or  decreas- 
ing ;  the  population  of  the  cities  has  been  increas- 
ing. When  this  is  known  Brayton's  reasons  for 
increasing  the  power  of  the  Senate  at  the  expense  of 
the  lower  house  and  the  Executive  becomes  vividly 
apparent.  The  fewer  electors  in  the  country  districts 
the  less  money  will  have  to  be  paid  for  votes  and  the 
easier  it  will  be  to  control  the  small  bodies  of  elec- 
tors. 

For  instance,  the  town  of  Little  Compton  cast  78 
votes  for  Senator  in  the  November  election,  going 
solidly,  without  a  dissenting  vote,  for  the  Eepub- 
lican  candidate,  while  in  Providence  21,063  Sena- 
torial votes  were  cast.  Such  figures  explain  the 
bribery  in  the  country  districts  ;  the  cities  are  too 
big  to  be  carried  in  Brayton's  pocket. 

The  statutes  which  govern  elective  qualifications 
in  this  State  would  seem,  in  theory,  to  reduce  to  a 

44 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Here,  we  no  sooner  get  our  officials  fairly 
groomed,  adorned  and  in  working  order,  than 
they  are  turned  out,  that  a  new  set  may  come 
in  whose  only  claim  to  office  is  that  they  pro- 
fess another  political  creed,  and  are  perfectly 
innocent  of  any  knowledge  of  the  duties  they 
are  called  upon  to  perform. 

minimum  the  direct  purchase  of  votes ;  that  they 
do  not  is  the  general  testimony,  borne  out  by  facts 
that  are  easily  verified. 

The  beginnings  of  bribery  in  this  State,  one  is 
told,  date  back  to  ante-bellum  days.  There  is  said 
to  have  been  a  notable  revival  of  the  practice  in  the 
sixties,  when  Sprague,  the  war  Governor,  was  elected. 
It  is  presumed  that  Brayton  referred  to  that  cam- 
paign when  he  said  the  other  day  in  an  interview 
that  the  Democrats  began  the  bribing  ;  as  if  that 
made  any  difference.  It  is  impossible  to  feel  any 
sympathy  for  the  Democrats  as  a  party  for  their 
present  plight.  After  talking  with  some  of  their 
leaders  and  hearing  the  current  gossip  the  signifi- 
cance of  Governor  Garvin's  reference  to  those  who 
are  "  tarred  with  the  same  stick/'  printed  on  Satur- 
day last,  becomes  apparent.  All  classes  of  citizens 
have  seen  so  much  of  bribing,  have  known  of  it  so 

45 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Possibly  the  most  pernicious  legislative 
practices  and  far  reaching  in  their  vicious 
consequences,  is  the  corrupt  huckstering 
which  results  in  the  sending  of  Bosses  and 
newly  made  millionaires,  often  of  the  criminal 

long,  that  their  moral  sensibilities  seem  to  have 
become  blunted. 

From  a  university-bred  man,  of  recognized  per- 
sonal integrity,  and  with  the  highest  social  and 
professional  standing,  I  have  heard  the  astounding 
suggestion  that  the  only  way  to  secure  a  reform  was 
to  out-bribe  the  Republican  machine,  get  control  of 
the  Senate  for  one  year,  and  amend  the  Constitution 
so  as  to  give  a  more  equitable  representation.  Prob- 
ably some  of  the  men  who  urge  this  are  indulging  in 
bitter  irony,  but  unquestionably  they  see  no  other 
way  out  of  their  present  plight.  Perhaps  this 
incident  will  serve  to  show  why  any  reform  is  appar- 
ently so  far  in  the  distant  future. 

"  I  must  confess/'  said  this  man,  "  that  I  have 
become  discouraged  at  the  lack  of  success  that  has 
attended  the  sporadic  attempts  in  the  past  to  check 
or  suppress  existing  evils.  Until  some  one  appears 
who  is  willing  to  give  his  whole  time  and  attention 
to  the  matter  I  don't  see  that  much  can  be  done. 

46 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

rich  sort,  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 
These,  of  both  classes,  carry  with  them  to  a 
body  where  once  were  to  be  found  such  hon- 
ored statesmen  as  Clay,  Webster,  Calhoun, 


The  quickest  way,  the  commercial  way,  if  you  wish, 
is  to  buy  the  Senate  one  year  and  amend  the  Con- 
stitution." 

"  Are  there  not  enough  decent  men  in  the  State 
to  form  the  nucleus  of  an  independent  reform  party 
for  the  purpose  of  educating  the  voters  and  prevent- 
ing their  further  degradation  ?  " 

"  I'm  afraid  not,"  he  replied.  "  You  see,  most 
of  the  practical  men  are  too  busy  attending  to  their 
personal  affairs,  and  until  this  thing  is  brought 
home  to  them  they  won't  take  much  interest  in 
what  is  going  on  in  the  towns  and  out  in  the  coun- 
try. Brayton,  as  a  rule,  does  not  interfere  in  local 
affairs  in  the  country,  and  his  men  in  the  Senate  are 
not  asked  to  run  counter  to  their  home  interests." 

So  long  as  the  system  of  representation  remains 
as  it  is  now,  bribery  seems  inevitable.  The  induce- 
ment lies  in  the  great  value  of  each  vote  in  the 
sparsely  inhabited  towns.  This  was  quickly  realized 
many  years  ago  by  astute  politicians.  (From  the 
Boston  Herald.) 

47 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

B urges,  Lewis,  Clinton,  Morris,  Hale,  Sum- 
ner,  Collamer  and  scores  of  others  equally 
respected  for  their  character  and  ability,  little 
else  than  their  want  of  capacity  for  dealing 
with  the  important  questions  brought  before 
them  in  a  disinterested  and  statesmanlike 
manner.  They  possess,  however,  the  needed 
cunning  which  can  press  to  the  reaping  point 
measures  for  personal,  sectional,  class  and 
partisan  advantage,  which  are  often  obtained 
to  the  detriment  of  the  whole  people. 

At  this  period  in  our  history  it  seems  to 
have  come  to  this,  that  among  the  various 
methods  of  getting  elected  ,to  the  United 
States  Senate  there  are  two,  clearly  recognized 
and  very  much  in  vogue.  1.  By  becoming 
a  Boss  and  showing  the  party  in  power  ex- 
ceptional capacity  for  wirepulling,  intriguing, 
obtaining  places  for  workers,  managing  cau- 
cuses and  conventions,  and  gathering  in  from 
the  trusts  and  over  protected  industries  funds 
for  distribution  among  the  dependent  faith- 
ful of  his  party.  2.  By  outright  purchase. 
Those  of  the  millionaire  class  often  adopt 
that  method  and  make  a  cash  payment,  based 
upon  an  estimate,  for  the  number  of  votes  re- 

48 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

quired.  At  this  time  we  have  several  Sen- 
ators who  belong  to  that  category. 

There  is  also  another  group,  that  may  be 
classed  with  the  millionaires :  those  who  have 
reached  their  places  by  the  aid  of  powerful 
corporations,  trusts  and  capitalists  with  whom 
they  were  affiliated.  For  these  also,  large 
cash  payments  are  made  for  election  purposes, 
but  usually  by  the  interests  they  are  elected 
to  serve.  These  Senators,  upon  the  floor  of 
the  Senate,  take  the  place  of  paid  attorneys 
to  protect  the  interests  they  are  elected  to 
represent:  and  being  spoilsmen  rather  than 
statesmen  can  be  relied  upon  to  support  the 
numerous  unnecessary  demands  upon  the  pub- 
lic treasury. 

A  very  remarkable  tendency  in  all  con- 
ditions of  American  society,  which  must  be 
apparent  to  the  most  casual  observer,  is  the 
national  bias  in  favor  of  office  holding.  Those 
who  are  most  ambitious  seek  remunerative 
political  employment,  while  a  great  multitude 
are  seemingly  satisfied  to  be  known  as  "  Mr. 
President  Doe  "  or  "  Mr.  Secretary  Roe  "  of 
some  sort  of  a  corporation,  benevolent  society, 
club  or  other  association,  with  which  our 

49 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

country  is  so  plentifully  supplied.  It  would 
be  rather  difficult  to  find  a  man  over  twenty 
years  of  age,  earning  five  dollars  per  week, 
who  does  not  belong  to  at  least  one  useless 
organization  managed  by  the  usual  board  of 
directors  and  adorned  with  an  extensive  staff 
of  officials.  It  is  fortunate  for  our  longing 
citizens  who  desire  public  recognition,  that 
our  plethora  of  government  places  affords  an 
ample  field  for  the  satisfaction  of  their  aspir- 
ations ;  and  in  an  extraordinary  measure  gives 
hope  to  a  craving  for  office-holding  unknown 
to  any  other  political  society. 

The  countless  swarms  of  devouring,  fatten- 
ing parasites  fastened  upon  the  suffering 
body  politic  constitute  a  continuous  National 
calamity,  which  nothing  but  poverty  can 
ever  diminish,  for  so  long  as  the  supply  of 
wealth  holds  out,  the  hordes  of  vampires 
will  continue  to  suck,  and  only  with  decrepit 
old  age  and  National  poverty  can  we  reason- 
ably hope  for  improved  conditions. 

Our  ruling  classes  have  made  it  appear, 
and  possibly  with  some  show  of  truthful- 
ness, that  this  great  army  of  office-holders  is 
made  necessary  because  of  the  existence  of 

50 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

our  forty-five  complicated  sets  of  political 
machines.  The  best  that  can  be  said  of 
these  classes  is :  that  they  are  only  a  portion 
of  the  evil  consequences  of  an  unwise  system, 
to  which  must  be  added  the  political  bosses 
and  workers,  who  are  to  be  found  in  every 
city  and  nearly  every  township  throughout 
the  land,  and  who  exist  upon  the  perquisites 
that  flow  to  them  through  the  channels  of 
corrupt  partisan  politics.  In  a  wisely 
organized  political  society  the  existence  of 
these  powerful  elements  would  be  impos- 
sible. 

A  careful  estimate  of  the  various  existing 
divisions  of  unproductive  tax-eaters  gives  a 
rather  startling  general  result.  It  shows 
that  in  the  year  1900,  outside  of  the  Army 
and  Navy,  there  was  in  the  pay  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government  and  States,  officials  and 
employees  to  the  number  of  about  1,060,000. 
These  were  the  regulars  and  do  not  include 
the  day-by-day  on's  and  off' s,  the  local  bosses 
and  party  workers,  who  from  time  to  time, 
manage  to  obtain  substantial  pickings,  which 
flow  from  our  useless  multiplication  of  local 
Treasuries.  Possibly  the  number  of  male 

51 


CUE  POLITICAL   DEGRADATION 

workers,  official  and  non-official,  engaged  in 
partisan  politics,  who  derive  their  sustenance 
from  public  monies  raised  by  direct  and 
indirect  taxation  may  number  about  two 
millions.  In  that  alert  army  of  spoils 
hunters  we  have  an  ever  ready  and  aggressive 
compact  body,  which  wields  a  weapon  so 
potent,  that  resistance  to  its  rule,  under  pre- 
sent conditions,  is  absolutely  hopeless. 

This  army  without  arms,  the  uncrowned 
tyrant  born  of  unwise  suffrage,  with  its  ever 
ready  ally,  the  corrupt  corporation,  consti- 
tutes a  power  of  enormous  strength  and  is 
an  ever  growing  and  constant  menace  to  the 
liberties  of  a  great  people ;  and  no  army  in 
arms,  of  a  single  tyrant,  from  the  time  of  the 
first  oppressor  to  the  present,  was  ever  more 
successful  in  methods  of  extortion  than  this 
civilian  political  army,  whose  only  weapon  is 
the  ballot,  which  demagogues  point  to,  as  the 
"Palladium  of  our  liberties."  One  hundred 
and  twenty-five  years  of  experience  have 
taught  us  that  to  call  it  the  "  Palladium  of 
our  wrongs  "  would  be  nearer  right. 

To  the  conditions  which  have  obtained 
through  the  unrestricted  vote,  can  be  directly 

52 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

traced  to  the  State  legislatures,  the  fact  tliat 
all  the  large  cities,  and  many  of  the  lesser 
ones,  have  fallen  under  the  partial  control 
of  irresponsible,  ignorant  and  brutal  cohorts 
of  foreign  plunderers  who  contribute  nothing 
whatever  to  the  general  welfare  of  the  body 
politic,  but  on  the  contrary  constitute  impedi- 
ments which  effectually  stop  the  way  to  all 
moral  and  political  improvement,  and  render 
economical  and  honest  administration  of 
municipalities  impossible. 

In  the  order  of  falling  New  Orleans  took 
the  lead,  and  then  in  regular  succession,  Balti- 
more, New  York,  Philadelphia,  Brooklyn 
Chicago  and  Boston.  The  latter  was  the 
last  to  come  under  foreign  yoke,  and  now  the 
O's  and  the  Mc's  sit  enthroned  in  the  hall 
where  a  Quincy  and  many  other  not  less 
honorable  New  England  worthies  were  wont 
to  rule. 

If  the  influence  of  city  methods  could  be 
confined  within  municipal  boundaries  there 
would  be  less  cause  for  alarm  than  now,  but 
the  past  and  present  experience  proves  that 
we  cannot  hope  for  any  such  happy  restric- 
tion. Unfortunately  the  fact  is  too  painfully 

53 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

apparent  for  successful  contradiction,  that  the 
criminal  political  atmosphere  generated  in 
these  municipal  hotbeds  is  contagious,  spread- 
ing out  in  every  direction  and  rapidly  con- 
taminating the  entire  population  of  the 
country.  The  fact  of  this  decay  of  political 
morality  is  self-evident,  and  may  be  now 
regarded  as  only  a  question  of  time,  as  to 
how  long  it  may  take  to  do  away  with  the 
shattered  remnants  now  remaining  of  honest 
methods  in  politics.  Even  now  the  average 
law-abiding  citizen  acknowledges  his  impo- 
tence as  a  factor  in  political  affairs,  and  has 
substantially  delivered  the  rule  of  his  country 
over  to  the  professional  spoilsman  who  makes 
politics  a  business  that  pays  the  highest 
known  returns  for  amount  of  labor  and  skill 
invested ;  and  the  seeming  hopelessness  of  the 
situation  (by  this  phrase  I  refer  to  the  impos- 
sibility of  electing  suitable  representatives 
to  make  laws)  constitutes  a  real  and  ever 
present  danger  of  portentous  magnitude. 

When  honest  men  in  the  face  of  great 
public  evils  fold  their  arms  and  admit  to 
themselves  that  there  is  no  way  out  of  a 
pending  dilemna,  the  case  is  desperate,  and 

54 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

nothing  short  of  a  volcanic  upheaval  can 
arouse  them  to  a  realizing  sense  of  their 
cowardice  and  the  necessity  for  strong,  deter- 
mined and  united  action,  such  as  was  wit- 
nessed when  the  news  came  to  the  North 
that  Fort  Sumter  had  been  fired  upon. 
The  advantage  of  that  armed  uprising  in  the 
South  was  a  well  defined  objective  that  all 
could  see.  Corrupt  political  practices  are 
usually  insidious,  intangible,  widely  diffused 
over  the  whole  country,  unseen  to  the  many, 
and  show  no  concentrated  point  or  stronghold 
for  an  attack,  which  has  prevented  concentra- 
tion of  opposing  action. 

These  conditions  must  and  will  continue 
until  the  burdens  of  government  become 
unbearable  when  the  people  will  endeavor  to 
discover  causes  which  are  now  unheeded, 
but  not  because  unknown.  Then  a  concen- 
trated course  of  action  may  remodel  a  series 
of  political  organisms,  which  present  more 
opportunities  for  abuse  than  any  other  known 
to  history. 


55 


MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE.* 

THE  voting  power  entrusted  to  the  citizen 
of  a  republic  is  the  most  sacred  and  potent 
privilege  ever  bestowed  upon  man.  It  is  the 
foundation  upon  which  the  whole  government 
structure  rests  and  is  the  source  of  all  politi- 
cal action.  It  not  only  carries  with  it  the 
right  to  assist  in  making  wise  and  just  laws 
for  the  protection  of  the  life  and  property  of 
the  single  individual  who  votes,  but  also, 
often,  the  responsibility  of  assisting  to  secure 
the  well  being  of  millions  of  others ;  and  no 
matter  what  the  after  effect  of  the  exercise  of 
this  franchise  may  be,  the  primary  cause  either 
for  good  or  evil  to  communities  constituting 
a  free  state  is  the  ballot ;  and  if  a  majority  of 
any  political  unit  is  corrupt,  it  will  always 
pervert  this  sacred  right  to  an  unpatriotic, 
unworthy  and  depraved  purpose  ;  such  as  cast- 
ing votes  for  representatives  who  in  their  turn 
will  originate  and  sustain,  for  unworthy  con- 

*  Written  in  1892. 

56 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

siderations,  evil  enactments  in  the  interests  of 
partisans,  individuals,  and  corporations  and 
against  the  welfare  of  the  people  at  large  ;  and 
in  violation  of  an  upright  and  enlightened 
public  policy. 

Such  must  ever  be  the  results  which  flow 
from  an  impure  source.  We  have  attained  to 
such  gigantic  material  strength  within  the  one 
hundred  and  twenty-seven  years  of  our  exist- 
ence as  a  separate  nation,  and  have  become  so 
enamored  of  our  peculiar  progress  and  the 
spoils  method  of  conducting  our  political  busi- 
ness, and  have  lapsed  into  such  a  condition  of 
almost  criminal  neglect  and  carelessness  in 
relation  to  the  e very-day  workings  of  our 
political  scheme,  that  we  have  failed  to  see,  as 
a  people,  even  one  out  of  the  many  self-evi- 
dent grave  defects  which  seem  to  have  been 
inherent  in  our  form  of  government. 

The  promoters  of  the  revolution  shook  off 
the  imaginary  tyranny  of  a  monarch — one  man 
— and  their  posterity,  aided  by  paupers,  illit- 
erates and  criminals,  chiefly  importations 
from  foreign  countries,  have  substituted  for 
the  one  man  tyranny,  that  of  the  unwashed 
millions,  the  most  corrupt,  vulgar,  exacting 

57 


OUE  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

and  extravagant  known  to  this  or  any  other 
country — worse  than  the  reign  of  Napoleon 
the  Third,  but,  possibly,  not  quite  as  bad  as 
the  dissolute  oppression  which  immediately 
preceded  the  French  Revolution. 

"  The  Fathers  " — those  of  the  Constitution, 
well  intentioned  capable  men,  when  they  had 
finished  their  labors,  honestly  believed  that 
they  had  established  a  free  government, 
where  the  field  would  be  an  open  one  free  to 
all  comers  for  a  fair  start,  and  that  in  the 
end  the  better,  i.  e.  the  honest,  the  industri- 
ous, the  frugal  and  the  good  would  win  the 
race. 

This  pleasant  dream  of  the  poor  man's 
paradise  and  home  for  the  oppressed  was 
realized — on  paper — in  the  form  of  a  consti- 
tution. For  more  than  a  hundred  years  we 
have  taken  our  rule  of  action  from  that  docu- 
ment, and  the  Utopian  political  dream  of  the 
framers  has  been  quoted  in  the  forum  and 
upon  the  stump,  as  the  soundest  and  best 
foundation  for  a  government  the  world  has 
ever  known ;  and  the  citizen  has  attributed 
our  national  prosperity  to  the  wise  provisions 
of  a  "  Peerless  Charter  "  embodying  supposed 

58 


OUE  POLITICAL  DEGEADATION 

national  (?)  as  well  as  political  rights.  A  dis- 
interested, cynical  unimaginative  person 
might  say,  with  a  considerable  degree  of 
truthfulness,  that  our  unprecedented  accumu- 
lations have  been  made  in  spite  of  our 
government,  and  that  within  one  century  and 
a  quarter — a  short  period  of  time  in  the 
history  of  a  nation — our  attempt  at  a  free 
government  predicated  upon  equal  rights  to 
all  men  has  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a 
few  unscrupulous  plutocrats  an  unprece- 
dented amount  of  wealth,  plundered,  with 
legislative  aid,  from  the  people  ;  and  while 
these  needlessly  wealthy  are  getting  richer, 
a  large  proportion  of  the  struggling  millions 
are  not  much  better  off  than  in  other  coun- 
tries. 

The  average  American  is  specially  proud 
of  the  free  ballot  which  upon  occasion  he  is 
pleased  to  designate  as  the  "  Palladium  of 
our  Liberties."  This  is  a  high  sounding 
phrase  of  classic  origin  which  is  particularly 
effective  and  usually  convinces  the  skeptic 
that  the  unrestricted  right  to  cast  a  vote  at 
all  elections  is  at  once  the  corner  stone  upon 
which  the  whole  American  system  has  been 

59 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

erected,  the  lever  that  has  raised  it  to  its 
present  "  proud  position  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth,"  and  the  key-stone  which  binds 
the  national  arch  together.  This  idea  domin- 
ates all  classes  and  without  reflection  is 
accepted  by  them  as  the  one  superior  right 
above  all  others  secured  under  the  republican 
form  for  the  material  and  moral  advance- 
ment of  humanity.  This  assumption  is  urged 
in  and  out  of  season  by  the  press,  politicians, 
spoilsmen  and  men  who  pass  for  statesmen, 
and  with  such  persistency  that  many  foreign 
publicists  have  accepted  the  American  plan, 
and  are  now  acting  upon  it  to  the  detriment 
of  at  least  one  other  great  nationality,  which 
has  heretofore  been  governed  upon  principles 
of  discreet  conservatism,  characterized  by  a 
wise  and  patriotic  policy  which  has  carried 
its  civilizing  influence  to  many  parts  of  the 
habitable  globe;  and  the  present  outlook 
indicates  that  other  nations  are  being  tainted 
with  the  same  political  heresy. 

During  the  first  fifty  years  after  the  close 
of  the  Revolution,  manhood  suffrage  accom- 
plished all  that  its  most  ardent  advocates 
could  have  demanded.  It  took  from  among 

60 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

the  whole  people  the  better  men  for  the 
higher  public  positions.  Learning,  broad 
intelligence  and  moral  character  went  for 
something  in  those  days,  and  were  regarded 
as  necessary  qualities,  which  would  enable 
those  who  possessed  them  to  properly  dis- 
charge the  responsible  duties  imposed  by  a 
public  trust.  The  government  in  the  hands 
of  such  men  was  safe,  its  reputation  was 
honorable  among  the  nations  and  its  business 
affairs  were  administered  with  a  rare  degree 
of  honesty  and  economy. 

This  high  standard  continued  until  several 
of  the  cities  had  grown  to  considerable  dim- 
ensions, when  the  tide  of  corrupt  politics  set 
in,  and,  without  hindrance,  has  continued  to 
flow  on  ever  since;  and  now  it  threatens  to 
overwhelm  a  great  and  powerful  nation  with 
a  sea  of  foul  political  slime  such  as  only  could 
have  been  created  by  the  self-seeking  partisan 
who  rules  now  to  ruin  in  the  hereafter. 

The  corrupt  influence  of  the  larger  cities, 
has,  in  many  states  extended  to  the  country 
districts,  and  their  methods  have  obtained 
to  such  an  extent  in  the  towns  and  cities  of 
the  interior  that  they  have  become  the  active 

61 


OUE  POLITICAL  DEGKADATION 

rivals  of  their  larger  prototypes ;  and  their 
local  officials  and  representatives  in  the  state 
legislatures  are  often  the  peers  in  the  paths 
of  political  crookedness  of  their  brothers  from 
the  slums  of  the  great  cities.  There  is  sub- 
stantially no  difference  in  their  aims  and  their 
methods  are  the  same.  Sometimes  there  is  a 
difference  in  the  market  value  of  votes.  The 
member  from  the  large  city  on  account  of  his 
supposed  influence  with  his  city  brothers 
usually  commands  a  higher  price  than  the  in- 
experienced rustic  from  ruralites.  The  former 
is  a  clever  expert  of  much  experience  in  the 
devious  ways  of  legislature,  while  the  bucolic 
member  whose  itching  palms  are  to  be  crossed 
for  the  first  time  with  golden  pieces,  is  often 
unwittingly  bought  and  sold  for  an  insignifi- 
cant consideration. 

These  practices  have  obtained  to  such  an 
extent  that  going  to  the  legislature  has  be- 
come one  of  the  most  profitable  industries  of 
the  country,  and  nominations  are  now  made 
and  controlled  by  experts  engaged  in  the 
traffic  of  securing  nominations.  The  compen- 
sation of  these  adepts  is  a  share  of  the  spoils 
brought  by  the  successful  candidate  from  the 

62 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

scene  of  his  legislation  triumphs  ;  sometimes 
they  are  rewarded  with  a  remunerative  ap- 
pointment to  office  for  themselves  or  friends, 
the  latter  always  paying  the  former  for  what 
they  receive. 

Says  the  ardent  advocate  of  manhood  suf- 
frage this  picture  is  overdrawn ;  this  state  of 
things  cannot  exist ;  the  intelligent  and  honest 
voter  would  revolt.  But  he  does  not  revolt, 
and  probably  never  will;  he  is  the  slave  of 
the  caucus  and  casts  his  vote  for  the  caucus 
candidate,  often  receiving  pecuniary  reward 
for  the  exercises  of  the  inestimable  privilege, 
i.  e.  voting  early  and  often.  He  is  not  paid 
to  discriminate  or  revolt,  but  to  vote  the 
partisan  ticket,  no  matter  how  foul  it  may  be. 

In  a  majority  of  American  cities  elections 
are  but  little  removed  from  the  plane  of  a 
wicked  farce,  and  no  intelligent  person  hav- 
ing the  least  knowledge  of  the  facts  as  they 
exist  could  be  deceived  by  the  empty  pre- 
tence that  the  will  of  the  people  is  ever  hon- 
estly expressed  through  the  medium  of  the 
ballot  box.  The  well-intentioned  voter  not 
influenced  by  improper  motives  is  often  at 
the  mercy  of  the  professional  manipulators 

63 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

in  charge  of  the  complicated  election  ma- 
chinery ;  and  in  many  instances  his  good  in- 
tention to  cast  a  clean  vote  is  so  perverted  by 
these  experts  that  by  the  time  it  has  been 
deposited,  it  is  no  better  in  its  effect  than 
that  of  its  fellows,  which  were  cast  for  venal 
considerations. 

Purchasing  votes  is  the  common  crime  of 
the  country  and  the  lever  the  practical  poli- 
tician relies  upon  to  hoist  himself  into  power, 
and  when  once  in,  if  he  can  make  a  fair  dis- 
tribution of  official  spoils  among  the  "  work- 
ers "  he  may  remain  in  office  indefinitely. 
Before  elections,National,  State  or  municipal, 
committees  are  formed  of  each  party  for  the 
object  of  raising  funds  for  "election  pur- 
poses" which  means  nothing  more  or  less, 
than  the  purchase  of  votes  of  those  willing 
to  sell.  In  many  places  the  act  of  buying 
votes  is  carried  on  openly  and  in  defiance  of 
law.  A  few  years  since  a  candidate  for  Con- 
gress in  one  of  the  New  York  City  districts 
was  supposed  to  have  expended  about  $70,- 
000  to  secure  his  election.  At  several  of  the 
polls  where  the  Negro  and  Irish  vote  pre- 
dominated, agents  of  this  candidate,  without 

64 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGKADATION 

any  attempt  at  concealment,  were  engaged  in 
bargaining  for  and  paying  voters  for  their 
votes.  In  one  instance  the  negotiations  were 
carried  on  in  the  presence  of  the  election 
officials  and  police  officers  appointed  to  guard 
the  sanctity  of  the  ballot  box. 

In  the  cities  the  keeper  of  the  liquor  saloon 
is  the  favorite  of  the  voter,  but  the  occupa- 
tion counts  for  little  unless  coupled  with  an 
offspring  from  the  u  Green  Isle "  who  has 
developed,  for  the  first  time  in  his  turbulent 
history,  into  an  accepted  ruler  of  men  of  the 
first  political  magnitude.  One  year  out  of 
the  twenty-four  Aldermen,  same  number  of 
members  of  Assembly  and  seven  State  Sen- 
ators elected  in  the  City  of  New  York,  thirty 
were  either  natives  of  Ireland  or  first  gen- 
eration born  of  Irish  parents  in  America; 
twelve  were  Germans,  to  whom  the  same 
statement  would  apply,  and  thirteen  were 
possibly  the  usually  accepted  Americans,  i.  e. 
persons  born  in  the  United  States  with  Eng- 
lish names.  And  sixteen  out  of  the  whole 
number  of  these  "statesmen"  who  were  to 
assist  in  making  laws  for  and  governing  five 
millions  of  civilized  people  were  engaged  in 

65 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

selling  adulterated  liquors  at  five  cents  a 
glass.  The  election  of  this  particularly  law- 
less class  of  Irish  spoilsmen  to  power  and 
often  to  absolute  control  of  the  large  cities, 
is  without  question  due  entirely  to  the  un- 
qualified vote  of  the  irresponsible  and  vicious 
classes. 

Notorious  instances  of  the  perversion  of 
the  suffrage  franchise  are  so  numerous  as  to 
defy  any  attempt  at  a  complete  enumeration. 
These  perversions  are  not  confined  to  any 
particular  part  of  the  country,  but  with 
greater  or  lesser  intensity  pervade  nearly  the 
whole,  and  we  must  content  ourselves  with 
citing  a  small  number  out  of  the  many  prom- 
inent examples,  merely  for  the  purpose  of 
illustration.  In  the  summer  of  1871  the 
great  conspiracy  of  which  William  M.  Tweed 
was  the  chief,  was  discovered.  The  autumn 
of  that  year  he  was  elected  to  the  State  Sen- 
ate by  an  unprecedented  majority  in  the  dis- 
trict that  elected  him.  It  is  fair  to  infer  that 
those  who  voted  for  him  knew  that  they 
were  casting  their  votes  for  one  of  the  great 
criminals  of  all  times.  The  degree  of  de- 
pravity displayed  on  the  part  of  the  voters, 

66 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

the  great  series  of  crimes  committed  by  their 
candidate  and  his  successful  return  to  the 
Senate,  constitute  together  an  item  of  immoral 
political  history  unapproachably  unique. 

A  later  incident  equally  depraved  was  the 
defeat  of  Delancey  Nicoll,  who  was  a  candi- 
date for  the  office  of  District  Attorney.  This 
gentlemen  as  an  assistant  to  that  official  had 
rendered  most  important  services  to  the  cit- 
izens of  the  City  of  New  York,  for  which  the 
reputable  among  them  were  grateful  and  de- 
sired not  only  to  retain  him  in  office  but  to 
promote  him  to  a  higher  sphere  of  usefulness. 
But  the  friends  of  the  so-called  "  Boodle  Al- 
dermen "joined  with  all  the  vicious  classes  to 
defeat  him.  In  this  corrupt  scheme  the  Mayor 
of  the  city  assisted  to  the  extent  of  using 
openly  his  influence  in  favor  of  a  candidate 
of  questionable  character  and  official  record, 
who  had  opposed  to  him  a  combination  of 
all  the  better  classes  of  citizens.  Nicoll  was 
defeated  by  a  large  majority,  and  it  goes 
without  saying,  that  his  defeat  must  be  con- 
strued into  punishment  for  having  honestly 
and  efficiently  performed  his  official  duties  to 
the  public.  At  the  time  of  this  election  it 

67 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

was  asserted  by  several  of  the  leading  New 
York  newspapers,  that  the  office-holders, 
brewers  and  liquor  dealers  raised  and  ex- 
pended five  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  elect 
their  man. 

It  is  an  officially  admitted  fact  that  up- 
wards of  fifteen  thousand  Grand  Jury  cases 
were  allowed  to  accumulate  in  the  New  York 
District  Attorney's  office,  and  that  a  large 
majority  of  them  were  against  liquor  sellers 
for  violation  of  the  excise  laws.  This  fact 
alone  lets  in  a  flood  of  light  upon  several  of 
the  slime-lined  caverns  of  corrupt  local  poli- 
tics, and  it  constitutes  a  well-defined  bond 
of  union  between  the  violators  of  law  and 
that  office,  and  the  probabilities  for  success 
at  an  election  are  largely  in  favor  of  the  can- 
didate who  promises  not  to  prosecute.  Upon 
general  principles  indicted  offenders  had 
good  reason  to  infer  that  Nicoll,  if  elected, 
would  do  his  duty  and  empty  official  pigeon- 
holes of  accumulated  cases.  Hence  his  de- 
feat. 

At  the  same  election  in  the  Eighth  As- 
sembly District  of  New  York  City  there  was 
assembled  a  score  or  more  of  the  worst  crimi- 

68 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

nals  known  to  the  local  police.  They  were 
brought  together  for  the  purpose  of  cheating 
a  candidate  for  the  position  of  Civil  Justice 
out  of  his  election,  and  they  did  it.  The 
proofs  of  their  crime  were  ample,  convincing 
and  ready  to  be  produced;  but  the  District 
Attorney,  although  often  requested  and  ur- 
gently pressed  to  do  his  sworn  duty,  refused 
to  present  the  facts  in  his  possession  to  a 
Grand  Jury.  The  criminals  this  official  re- 
fused to  prosecute,  while  they  were  defeat- 
ing one  candidate,  were  probably  working 
for  the  success  of  another  who  was  elected 
to  the  position  of  Justice  of  a  new  Criminal 
Court,  not  needed,  but  established  at  the  in- 
stigation of  this  much  overrated  District 
Attorney,  who  was  its  first  Judge. 

The  New  York  legislature  has  been  notori- 
ously corrupt  for  a  half  of  a  century.  It  was 
my  fortune  to  have  been  a  member  of  that 
body  in  1872,  when  it  was  known  as  the  "  Re- 
form Legislature,"  then  alleged  for  the  reason, 
as  I  have  always  supposed,  that  only  eighty- 
five  out  of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight 
were  "  Commercial,"  i.  e.j  purchasable.  The 
notable  scandal  of  that  winter  was  accom- 

69 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

plished  by  the  lobby  forces  of  the  New  York 
Central  and  Hudson  River  Railroad  Com- 
pany. The  traffic  of  that  and  other  corpora- 
tions had  become  so  great  a  nuisance  in  the 
Fourth  Avenue  of  the  City  of  New  York,  as 
to  endanger  life  and  prevent  ordinary  traffic, 
which  ought  to  have  been  suppressed  by  the 
courts  at  the  expense  of  the  oifending  cor- 
porations, but  instead  the  legislature  was  in- 
duced to  pass  a  law  compelliDg  the  tax  payers 
of  that  city  to  contribute  $3,637,000  towards 
abating  a  public  common -law  nuisance  they 
had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  creating. 

The  Albany  lawmakers  of  1868  ac- 
commodated the  president  of  that  company 
with  an  act  which  legalized  a  previous  illegal 
overissue  of  stock  to  the  extent  of  forty 
millions  of  dollars,  upon  which  the  patrons 
of  that  corporation  have  since  paid  scores  of 
millions  of  dollars  in  dividends.  It  was 
stated  at  the  time  of  this  transaction,  that 
the  presiding  official  who  conceived  and  car- 
ried to  success  this  stock-watering  scheme, 
made  out  of  it  the  sum  of  twenty-two  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  which  afterwards  became 
the  foundation  of  one  of  the  colossal  fortunes 

70 


,  OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

of  all  times.  It  goes  without  saying,  that 
this  overissue  was  in  direct  and  flagrant 
violation  of  the  laws  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  and  that  a  corrupt  legislature  was 
bribed  to  make  it  valid  by  the  enactment  of 
a  legislative  act. 

In  1886  a  person  who  had  accumulated 
a  great  fortune  out  of  the  earnings  of  one  of 
the  most  corrupt  and  oppressive  corporate 
monopolies  with  which  the  American  nation 
is  so  plentifully  afflicted,  sent  his  agents  to 
the  Ohio  legislature  and  purchased  for  him- 
self a  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

In  1887  a  combination  of  Pacific  (land 
grant)  Railroad  officials  succeeded  in  defeat- 
ing the  re-election  of  a  Senator  from  Ne- 
braska, whose  only  offence  had  been  a  series 
of  earnest  attempts  against  great  odds,  in  be- 
half of  the  interests  of  the  government.  He 
had  dared  upon  the  floor  of  the  United 
States  Senate  to  denounce  the  greed  of  the 
corporate  land  thieves,  had  favored  a  restor- 
ation to  the  people  of  the  lands  illegally 
taken  and  held  by  them,  and  also,  the  pay- 
ment of  interest  upon  the  bonds  loaned  by 
the  government  for  building  these  railroads. 

71 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

He  was  regarded  by  national  officials  and 
practical  politicians  as  being  "  impractical," 
and  consequently  removed  to  give  place  to 
a  supposed  less  troublesome  Senator. 

Not  many  years  ago  there  was  an  election 
to  choose  a  Senator  from  the  "Pacific  Slope." 
A  local  u  Boss  "  announced  at  the  beginning 
of  the  campaign,  "My  candidate  means  busi- 
ness, has  counted  the  cost,  and  is  going  in  to 
win."  It  is  probably  unnecessary  to  write 
that  the  statesman  alluded  to,  who  had  the 
longest  purse,  represented  in  a  certain  man- 
ner, the  representatives  of  a  constituency  his 
money  purchased,  and  the  contest  for  his 
election  has  become  historical.  It  is  believed 
to  have  been  one  of  the  most  expensive  of  its 
kind  known  to  our  history. 

Vermont  may  be  regarded  as  the  most 
economically  and  carefully  governed  of  all 
the  states.  Its  citizens  have  better  protec- 
tion for  life  and  property  at  less  cost  than  in 
either  of  the  other  American  states,  and  yet 
only  a  few  years  since  their  local  railroad 
magnate  obtained  the  enactment  of  a  law 
which  enabled  him  to  defraud  the  owners  of 
the  first  and  second  mortgage  bonds  out  of 

72 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

their  security.  This  act  was  without  prece- 
dent and  wholly  unparalleled  in  its  result- 
ing rascality ;  and  the  singular  part  of  that 
affair  consisted  of  the  fact,  that  the  legisla- 
tors who  voted  for  the  act  were  not  culpable, 
they  were  only  incapable,  and  in  the  major- 
ity of  instances  the  bribes  were  railroad 
passes  and  insignificant  retainers  to  cross- 
roads lawyers.  This  single  incident  illus- 
trates the  importance  of  entrusting  the  law- 
making  power  to  persons  who  are  capable  of 
judging  of  the  effects  of  the  laws  they  are 
called  upon  to  enact. 

In  1887  the  Boston  and  Maine  Railroad 
officials,  with  the  aid  of  an  enormous  lobby 
and  $225,000  induced  a  sufficient  number  of 
the  members  of  the  New  Hampshire  legisla- 
ture to  pass  a  law,  which,  if  it  had  been 
signed  by  the  Governor,  would  have  placed 
the  railroad  system  of  that  state  under  the 
control  of  a  foreign  corporation. 

What  has  been  written  of  the  legislatures 
named  will  apply  with  equal  force  to  a  ma- 
jority of  the  others,  and  especially  to  those 
of  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  Ohio, 
Colorado  and  California,  and  it  is  quite  im- 

73 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

possible  to  form  anything  like  a  correct  esti- 
mate as  to  the  number  of  legislative  bodies 
out  of  the  forty-five  that  are  not  purchasable. 
Probably  there  is  not  one  entirely  free  from 
the  influence  of  money  or  corrupt  politics. 
With  the  majority  it  is  a  matter  of  purchase 
pure  and  simple,  and  turns  upon  the  single 
question  of  how  much — cash  or  in  kind. 

The  Federal  Congress  being  a  much  larger 
body  than  any  of  the  State  legislatures,  repre- 
senting many  antagonistic  interests  of  the  sec- 
tions, is  not  so  easily  controlled,  and  is  sel- 
dom if  ever  induced  by  improper  considera- 
tions to  lend  itself  to  corrupt  schemes  of 
insignificant  importance.  It  is  only  at  the 
solicitation  of  the  powerful  and  wealthy 
corporations,  or  in  the  interests  of  a  momen- 
tous measure  for  partisan  political  aggran- 
dizement that  it  comes  down  to  the  level  of 
vicious  legislation  and  delivers  tainted  goods. 
But  still  it  is  a  matter  of  national  regret  that 
its  morals  are  not  what  they  ought  to  be,  and 
it  must  be  admitted,  that  to  a  certain  extent, 
this  all-powerful  body  of  lawmakers  are  a 
reflex  of  the  State  legislatures.  And  a  few 
references  to  several  of  the  soiled  pages  of 

74 


OUK  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Congressional  history  must  be  made  to  show 
that  its  methods  are  in  some  instances  about 
the  same. 

The  story  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  is  among 
the  national  landmarks  which  time  will  not 
efface.  The  knowledge  of  that  great  scandal 
came  upon  the  nation  like  a  vast  dark,  dense 
cloud  in  the  noon  of  a  clear  summer  day  ; 
and  as  its  humiliating  details  were  gradually 
developed  the  surprise  grew  until  the  honest 
citizens  refused  to  believe  that  a  corrupt 
combination  of  such  magnitude  instituted  for 
public  plunder  could  have  been  consummated 
by  the  men  they  had  elected  to  represent 
them.  But  soon  the  official  investigation 
more  than  confirmed  previous  unofficial  state- 
ments. And  then  came  the  sickening  realiza- 
tion of  the  fact  that  several  of  the  most 
honored  names  belonging  to  the  late  heroic 
period  of  the  Nation's  history  were  disgraced 
beyond  redemption,  and  their  owners'  reputa- 
tion made  infamous  for  all  time  to  come. 
Those  were  the  people's  representatives  whose 
official  acts  had  been  purchased  to  perpetrate 
an  unheard  of  wrong  against  the  property 
rights  of  the  whole  people.  The  nation  had 

75 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

just  passed  through  the  death  dealing  ordeal 
of  a  long  and  sanguinary  war ;  many  hearth- 
stones had  their  vacant  seats  and  all  hearts 
were  saddened,  but  there  was  over  all  a  sor- 
rowful thankfulness  for  the  hard  fought 
victories  which  declared  to  the  world  that  the 
territorial  integrity  of  the  nation  had  been 
maintained.  This  great  sacrifice  of  blood  had 
sanctified  a  heroic  people,  but  its  influence 
had  failed  to  reach  the  heart  of  the  politician 
or  to  affect  the  methods  of  the  unscrupulous 
promoters  of  corrupt  corporation  schemes; 
and  while  confiding  constituents  were  mourn- 
ing the  loss  of  their  fallen  relations  and  strew- 
ing their  graves  with  flowers,  their  chosen 
representatives  were  perfecting  plans  for  giv- 
ing away  the  public  domain  and  plundering 
the  public  treasury.  Fortunately  for  the 
reputation  of  humanity  such  exhibitions  of 
monstrous  depravity  are  rarely  witnessed. 
The  success  of  this  conspiracy  in  favor  of 
land  grants  and  bond  subsidies  to  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company,  proved  to  be  only 
the  entering  point  of  a  wedge,  and  it  excited 
more  cabals  of  ambitious  plunderers  to  under- 
take similar  operations  in  the  interest  of 

76 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

other  projected  lines  of  transcontinental  rail- 
roads, which  were  finally  carried  through 
Congress  by  the  methods  employed  by  the 
inventors  of  the  Credit  Mobilier. 

The  takings  of  the  five  Pacific  Railroads 
under  the  several  land  grant  and  subsidy 
acts  amount  in  land  to  upwards  of  fifty 
millions  of  acres  and  the  Northern  Pacific  has 
the  right  to  take  upwards  of  thirty  millions 
more,  making,  in  all,  taken  and  to  be  taken, 
ninety  millions  of  acres  by  these  five  cor- 
porations ;  add  to  that  number  the  numerous 
grants  to  lesser  railroad  corporations,  and  we 
shall  find  that  the  national  territory  given  to 
them  is  equal  to  the  whole  of  France  proper. 
The  subsidies  in  bonds  to  these  roads  upon 
which  the  government  paid  interest  amounted 
to  $59,414,652.  For  a  rough  calculation  and 
to  keep  within  bounds  let  us  estimate  the 
lands  at  125,000,000  of  acres  at  the  then 
value  of  $4  per  acre,  which  would  give  a 
total  value  of  lands  and  subsidies,  of  $559,- 
414,652.  The  Congressional  acts  for  these 
wholesale  transfers  of  the  national  lands  and 
bonds  to  private  corporations  were  bribed 
through  Congress;  they  were  unnecessary 

77 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

and  unwarrantable  and  without  precedent 
among  the  civilized  nations,  and  cannot  be 
defended  upon  any  sound  principles  of  public 
policy  or  political  economy.  The  lands  were 
taken  virtually  from  the  poor  and  given  to 
the  rich — from  the  would-be  settler  to  the 
corrupt  corporation.  If  a  railroad  was 
needed  to  the  Pacific  coast,  the  government 
might,  or  ought  to  have  built,  owned  and 
controlled  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole 
people ;  and  not  for  professional  scoundrels 
posing  for  public  benefactors. 

Another  item  of  pernicious  legislation  was 
the  enactment  of  the  "  Bland  Silver  Bill " 
passed  in  the  interest  of  the  silver  producing 
states  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  an 
abnormally  high  price  for  that  metal  and 
creating  an  artificial-uncommercial  demand 
for  it.  It  compelled  the  government  to  pur- 
chase at  least  two  millions  of  dollars  worth 
per  month  which  was  coined  into  an  alleged 
dollar,  then  of  less  than  eighty  cents  value, 
which  commerce  could  not  use  and  no  individ- 
ual cared  to  accept.  The  direct  result  of 
this  unexampled  financiering  was  inflation 
of  the  currency  at  the  rate  of  two  millions 

78 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

of  dollars  per  month,  which  injured  the  con- 
sumer and  benefited  the  parasite  speculator 
and  the  silver  producing  states.  The  act 
was  passed  also  in  the  interest  of  corrupt 
politics,  viz.  when  the  republican  party  had 
control  of  both  branches  of  Congress,  for  the 
purpose  of  keeping  the  silver  states  from 
going  to  the  Democratic  party,  where  their 
leaders  had  threatened  to  take  them  if  the 
bill  was  not  enacted. 

The  "River  and  Harbor  Bill"  which  is 
sometimes  called  the  "  Annual  Steal "  is 
always  well  sandwiched  with  corrupt  "  Jobs  " 
in  the  interest  of  particular  Congressmen  and 
Senators  for  the  benefit  of  their  sections. 
One  rather  amusing  anecdote  will  sufficiently 
illustrate  the  nature  of  many  of  its  yearly 
items.  A  few  years  since  a  certain  Senator 
returning  from  a  yachting  excursion  with  one 
of  his  wealthy  constituents,  suggested  mak- 
ing an  unusual  landing,  the  yacht  stuck  fast 
in  the  sand  of  a  shallow  beach  and  the  guest 
and  yacht  owner  were  rowed  in  a  small  boat 
as  near  dry  land  as  possible,  but  finally  were 
compelled  to  wade  a  short  distance  to  the 
shore.  The  "River  and  Harbor  Bill"  of 

79 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

the  next  session  of  Congress  contained  an 
appropriation  for  deepening  the  channel  in  a 
certain  well-known  New  England  Bay. 

The  "  Public  Buildings  Appropriation 
Bill"  is  a  favorite  with  the  average  Con- 
gressman, and  often  its  provisions  add  to  the 
reputation  of  the  representative  whose  con- 
stituents have  neither  trout  creeks  or  sluice- 
ways to  transform  into  navigable  waterways 
of  commerce.  A  grant  of  fifty  or  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars  for  a  postoffice  in  a  village 
where  the  postal  revenues  are  not  more  than 
one  or  two  thousand  dollars  a  year  is  not  an 
infrequent  occurrence.  These  are  the  little 
tubs  the  amiable  Senator  or  Congressman 
tosses  to  his  section  to  console  the  patriotic 
constituents  for  not  being  eligible  for  the 
" River  and  Harbor"  appropriations. 

The  supplemental  pension  bills  passed 
since  the  close  of  the  rebellion,  which  have 
taken  many  scores  of  millions  of  dollars  from 
the  treasury,  originated  in  the  brain  of  one 
man  who  carried  them  to  success  with  the 
hope  that  some  day  the  pensioners'  vote 
would  carry  him  to  the  White  House.  The 
most  lamentable  part  of  this  particular  item 

80 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

in  our  national  history  is  this :  while  these 
bills  were  being  considered  there  was  not  a 
member  of  either  house  who  dared  rise  in 
his  place  and  denounce  them  as  they  deserved, 
so  fearful  were  they  of  being  annihilated  by 
the  "  Old  Soldier  Vote." 

There  is  a  wide-spread  belief  among  the 
people  that  the  laws  upholding  an  oppressive 
war  tariff  have  been  maintained  at  the 
expense  of  honest  legislation,  that  corrupt 
politics  and  private  interests  have  for  a  score 
of  years  prevented  the  success  of  all  attempts 
at  reform  in  our  system  of  unnecessaiy 
taxation  upon  importations  from  foreign 
countries. 

Can  it  be  said  of  a  people  who  permit  the 
abuses  enumerated,  not  only  to  continue  from 
year  to  year,  but  to  increase  in  number  and 
kind  to  an  unprecedented  extent,  that  they 
are  free  ?  Can  a  poor  man,  no  matter  how 
well  qualified  morally  and  intellectually,  go 
to  a  State  legislature  and  hope  to  succeed  in 
a  contest  with  the  viciously  corrupt  million- 
aire or  political  boss  for  a  seat  in  the  United 
States  Senate?  Is  this  particular  field  of 
contest  an  open  one  to  all  comers  where 

81 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

success  ought  to  be,  but  is  not,  contingent 
upon  moral  and  intellectual  fitness  ? 

All  of  the  greater  railroad  corporations 
employ  an  expert  corps  of  professional 
corruptionists  known  as  the  "  Railroad 
Lobby  "  whose  business  it  is  to  bribe  legis- 
lators. They  compass,  whenever  they  elect, 
the  passage  of  improper  laws  for  the  benefit 
of  their  employers,  and  prevent  the  enactment 
of  laws  intended  to  check  the  dishonest  greed 
which  the  corporations  are  on  the  alert  to 
satisfy.  Experience  fully  warrants  the 
assertion  that  these  trained  corruptionists 
have  for  more  than  two  decades  controlled  a 
majority  of  our  State  legislatures. 

It  has  passed  into  the  political  literature 
of  the  nation  as  fact  that  the  New  York 
Central  and  Hudson  River  Railroad  "  owns 
the  legislature  at  Albany  "  and  the  statement 
will  apply  with  equal  force  to  the  legislatures 
of  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Illinois,  California, 
Colorado  and  other  trans-Mississipi  states, 
and  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  is,  and  the 
Pacific  (land  grant)  Railroads  were  once, 
equally  potent  at  Washington.  Their 
officials  have  succeeded  in  preventing  what 

82 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

they  were  pleased  to  call "  hostile  legislation  " 
in  other  words  the  passage  of  acts  intended 
to  bring  them  to  book  for  their  swindles  and 
evasions. 

Senator  Thurman  of  Ohio  once  succeeded 
in  obtaining  the  passage  of  an  act  intended 
to  protect  government  interests  interwoven 
with  the  land  grant  and  subsidy  railroads. 
It  proved  to  be  inefficient  and  for  a  long  time 
was  regarded  as  a  practical  dead  letter. 
Many  of  the  original  promoters  of  these  enter- 
prises were  alive  and  still  controlled  the 
corporations  they  brought  into  existence,  and 
they  showed  as  much  skill  in  evading  the 
provisions  of  a  good  law  as  formerly  in 
promoting  the  passage  of  bad  ones. 

That  the  evils  described  exist  there  can  be 
no  reasonable  doubt  and  we  naturally  search 
for  the  cause.  The  unqualified  answer  is, 
that  they  have  been  brought  into  existence 
by  the  abuse  of  the  unrestricted  vote,  which 
chooses  from  among  the  ignorant  and  vicious 
classes  unfit  representatives  to  make  our  laws. 
This  evil  is  a  gigantic  one  and  is  as  deep 
down  in  our  system  as  the  foundations  of  the 
government  and  can  never  be  remedied  short 

83 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

of  a  revolution.  It  is  perfectly  certain  that 
the  corrupt  non-producing  classes  who  are 
wielding  this  all-potent  weapon  for  selfish 
ends,  regardless  of  public  and  private  rights 
are  not  going  to  give  it  up  without  a  des- 
perate and  bloody  struggle.  Reformation  to 
better  political  morals  on  the  part  of  those 
who  live  by  plundering  the  public  can  never 
be  brought  about  by  any  system  of  education 
or  attempt  at  enforcement  of  ethical  princi- 
ples. A  Cromwell  or  a  French  Revolution 
must  present  the  only  argument  the  spoliation 
classes  can  be  made  to  comprehend. 

No  theory  can  possibly  be  more  absurd 
than  the  one  founded  upon  the  assumption 
that  "  All  men  are  created  free  and  equal." 
A  child  at  the  moment  of  its  birth  is  not  free. 
It  is  subject  to  parental  care  and  with  the 
dawn  of  intellect  and  physical  power  the 
parents  interpose  restraint  upon  freedom  of 
action,  and  when  the  age  of  more  mature 
responsibilities  arrives,  the  civil  law  steps  in 
and  imposes  further  restraint  which  continues 
during  life.  Under  these  conditions  uncon- 
ditional freedom  is  impossible.  A  condition 
of  equality  for  all  men  and  women  is  quite  as 

84 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

impossible  as  unqualified  freedom,  and  it  has 
never  existed  in  any  of  the  varied  conditions 
of  human  existence,  under  any  form  of 
government,  and  all  evidence  goes  to  prove 
that  no  two  men  or  women  can  be  alike  in 
intellect,  morals,  facial  appearance,  expression 
or  physical  form,  and  as  to  what  are  the 
natural  rights  with  which  every  human  being 
is  supposed  to  be  seized  at  the  moment  of 
birth  is  a  matter  of  grave  doubt.  There  are 
however  several  conditions  which  are  neces- 
sary to  human  existence,  that  ought  to  be 
universally  recognised.  The  right  to  life, 
which  in  all  civilised  communities  carries 
with  it  the  right  to  protection,  the  right  to 
labor  and  its  results;  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness,  but  only  in  such  a  manner  as  not 
to  interfere  with  the  general  well-being  of 
society  and  the  rights  and  happiness  of  others. 
The  mere  fact  of  birth  and  existence  in 
the  form  of  a  man  without  other  qualifica- 
tions does  not  carry  with  it  the  right  to  rule, 
or  give  the  vicious  and  pauper  classes  the 
privilege  of  assisting  to  make  laws  for  those 
who  have  earned  the  wherewith  to  pay  the 
expense  of  maintaining  civil  government. 

85 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

The  right  to  vote  ought  to  be  limited  to 
those  who  possess  morals,  intelligence  and 
property — at  least  one  or  all.  The  vicious, 
ignorant  and  pauper  classes  may  be  ruled 
and  protected  by  the  application  of  wise  and 
just  laws,  but  they  can  lay  no  just  claim  to  a 
privilege  of  assisting  in  governing  others ; 
and  only  those  who  pay  the  expenses  of 
government  should  have  the  right  to  decide 
who  shall  represent  them  for  the  purpose  of 
making  public  expenditures. 

Political,  like  business  organizations,  ought 
to  be  based  upon  reciprocal  compensation. 
Those  who  contribute  to  success  of  the  whole, 
equally  with  others,  should  have  equal  rights 
as  to  control  and  in  results,  while  the  drones 
and  worthless  who  contribute  nothing  to  the 
general  prosperity  ought  to  be  deprived  of 
both.  This  rule  applies  also  to  families 
where  happiness  is  the  outcome  of  order, 
morality  and  thrift.  The  producers,  i.  e.  in- 
dustrious and  better  members  always  receive 
the  highest  parental  consideration,  while 
those  who  exist  only  to  be  clothed,  lodged 
and  fed  at  the  expense  of  the  others,  are  never 
regarded  favorably  and  in  many  countries  or 

86 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

communities  are  rejected  from  the  family 
household  like  the  drones  from  the  beehive. 
,  A  nation  is  nothing  but  a  national  family, 
and  the  same  principles  of  government  that 
applies  to  domestic  relations  underlie  the 
laws  that  govern  peoples,  and  those  nations 
are  the  better  governed  which  make  the  most 
stringent  and  impartial  application  of  these 
principles.  The  right  to  assist  in  governing 
(to  vote)  others  is  not  a  natural  one.  It 
is  derived  from  acquired  or  inherited  con- 
ditions, all  tending  in  the  direction  of  fitness, 
and  not  from  the  accident  of  being  born  a 
male  or  female  of  the  genus  homo.  In  the 
United  States  the  franchise  line  is  drawn  with 
many  sorts  on  the  one  side,  and  on  the  other 
Chinese,  idiots,  insane  persons  and  convicts. 
Why  not  go  further  and  exclude  illiterates, 
habitual  criminals,  tramps  and  the  classes  en- 
gaged in  immoral  occupations  that  encourage 
and  produce  crime  and  pauperism.  A  gov- 
ernment is  bound,  by  reason  of  its  existence, 
if  for  no  other,  to  protect  its  citizens  from  in- 
ternal evils  and  disorders  as  well  as  to  de- 
fend them  from  the  attacks  from  without; 
and  when  the  vicious  law-defying  millions, 

87 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

by  the  abuse  of  a  great  privilege,  consolidate 
themselves  into  the  form  of  an  extortionate 
tyrant,  it  is  time  for  the  ought  to  be  ruling 
forces,  to  apply  the  necessary  power  to  pro- 
tect the  worthy  citizen  against  the  incursions 
and  oppressions  of  spoilsmen. 

In  the  United  States  has  not  the  time  for 
such  an  interposition  arrived  ? 


88 


NATURALIZATION.  * 

THE  next  National  evil  in  order  after  uni- 
versal suffrage  is  a  nearly  useless  set  of 
naturalization  laws.  The  United  States  is 
the  only  one  among  the  civilized  nations  that 
has  failed  to  erect  an  efficient  barrier  against 
the  intrusion  of  the  undesirable  classes  emi- 
grating from  foreign  countries,  and  by  its 
negligence  in  this  respect,  invited  those  who 
have  neither  moral  character  or  intellectual 
qualifications  to  land  upon  its  shores,  and 
gives  them  the  privilege  of  assisting  to  man- 
age the  affairs  of  a  government  before  there  is 
any  likelihood  of  their  having  any  knowledge 
of  a  system  new  to  them,  which  would  enable 
them  to  vote  and  act  intelligently. 

Fortunately  there  is  a  remedy  for  the 
neglect  on  the  part  of  the  framers  of  the  Con- 
stitution to  provide  measures  for  the  pre- 
vention of  this  evil.  The  clause  of  the  Fed- 


*  Written  in  1885. 

89 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

eral  Constitution  relating  to  this  matter  is 
permissory  and  not  mandatory,  and  it  is  com- 
petent for  Congress  to  pass  a  stringent  and 
restrictive  act  affording  a  complete  remedy 
for  a  Constitutional  omission.  In  order  to 
show  the  pressing  need  for  such  a  change  it 
is  only  necessary  to  refer  to  the  newspaper 
history  and  official  report  made  by  a  Con- 
gressional Committee  in  1868  upon  the 
naturalization  frauds  perpetrated  in  the  city 
of  New  York  in  the  autumn  of  that  year. 
The  simple  facts  in  relation  to  this  stu- 
pendous scheme  of  rascality  constitutes  a 
chapter  of  political  jugglery  wholly  un- 
rivalled in  the  known  history  of  any  other 
civilized  nation.  This  conspiracy  was  con- 
ceived, elaborated  and  carried  to  success  by 
the  New  York  leaders  of  one  of  the  great 
National  political  parties,  and  its  successful 
execution  involved  nearly  all  classes  of  pub- 
lic officials,  from  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  great  Commonwealth  of  New 
York,  down  through  all  grades  of  public  ser- 
vants to  the  assistant  clerks  of  local  courts. 

The  then  Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York 
was  the  candidate  of  the  Democratic  party 

90 


OUE  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

for  Governor.  He  had  passed  as  a  sort  of  a 
party  saint  among  a  set  of  partisan  free- 
booters, but  at  best  lie  was  only  a  screen  to 
shield  his  friends  and  intimate  associates  from 
public  gaze  while  they  were  robbing  the 
municipal  treasury.  This  official  had  a  direct 
personal  interest  in  the  success  of  his  party 
and  his  partisan  discretion  did  not  permit 
him  to  interfere  with  the  political  misdeeds 
of  his  intimates. 

Outside  of  the  courts,  law  officials  and  city 
officials,  there  existed  no  practical  power  to 
resist  the  consummation  of  a  gigantic  crime, 
which  was  to  overwhelm  and  set  at  naught, 
the  honest  will  as  expressed  through  the  bal- 
lots of  a  majority  of  the  citizens  of  a  great 
and  powerful  Commonwealth ;  and  the  alli- 
ance made  between  officials  who  had  sworn 
to  protect  and  administer  the  laws  and  an 
enormous  cabal  of  practical  election  man- 
agers, constituted  an  irresistible  force  which 
crushed  all  opposition,  and  led  the  law  abid- 
ing citizens  to  believe  that  they  had  neither 
political  or  personal  rights,  nor  a  government 
strong  enough  to  protect  them  even  if  they 
existed. 

91 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

The  offence  on  the  part  of  Judges  of  States 
Courts  of  corruptly  administering  the  laws 
relating  to  naturalization  of  aliens  is  an  old 
one,  and  has  been  perpetrated  in  various 
states  of  the  Union,  both  before  and  since 
the  detection  and  impeachment  of  Judge 
Elliot  in  Lousiania  for  misconduct  in  this 
matter  during  the  years  from  1841  to  1844. 
But  it  did  not  become  a  potent  and  distinct 
factor  in  partisan  politics  in  the  city  of  New 
York  until  about  1866,  when  the  Superior 
and  Common  Pleas  Courts  admitted  to  cit- 
izenship 13,023  aliens  and  in  1867,  15,746 
more.  This  was  mere  child's  play,  or  sort  of 
preliminary  exercise  in  political  gymnastics 
of  the  New  York  courts  preparatory  for  a 
supreme  effort  in  the  near  future. 

The  election  of  1868  was  an  important  one. 
Grant  with  his  popular  reputation  of  having 
saved  the  Union,  was  in  the  field  for  Presi- 
dent running  against  Seymour.  John  A. 
Griswold,  a  patriotic  citizen  of  the  highest 
type,  who  out  of  his  own  means  had  built  the 
Monitor  that  defeated  the  Merrimac,  was  the 
Republican  'candidate  for  Governor  of  the 
State  of  New  York  against  John  T.  Hoffman, 

92 


OUE  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

facile  and  expert,  who  was  the  candidate  of  the 
Democracy.  There  were  also  the  usual  num- 
ber of  members  of  Congress  to  be  elected  and 
many  judicial,  State,  city  and  county  offices  to 
be  filled.  From  a  spoils  standpoint,  the  po- 
litical stake  was  of  enormous  value  when 
considered  in  connection  with  the  almost 
numberless  possibilities  in  the  direction  of 
public  plunder;  and  its  possession  was  re- 
garded as  being  worthy  of  a  herculean  effort, 
which  the  notorious  leaders  of  brutal  Irish 
hordes  were  prepared  to  make  ;  and  as  usual 
all  the  corrupt  appliances  and  forces  so  well 
known  to  machine  managers  were  called  into 
active  co-operation.  The  slums  had  furnished 
the  usual  quotas  of  facile  registers  and  in- 
spectors of  election ;  the  lofts  of  stables,  the 
cellars  and  garrets  of  Water  and  Roosevelt 
Streets,  Mackerelville,  Five  Points  and  the 
African  quarters  had  been  peopled  with 
criminals,  paupers  and  tramps,  who  had  been 
engaged,  caged,  colonized  and  paid  for  the 
express  purpose  of  fraudulent  registration 
and  voting.  These  were  the  oft-repeated 
ordinary  preparations  for  any  election  and 
had  come  to  be  regarded  as  legitimate  and 

93 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

regular,  at  least,  by  one  of  the  great  National 
parties.  This  year  these  preparations  were 
destined  to  be  dwarfed  into  utter  insignifi- 
cance when  compared  to  the  grand  coup  the 
Democratic  leaders  had  in  store  for  a  con- 
fiding public. 

Immediately  after  the  election  of  1867,  a 
local  "statesman"  of  knowledge,  sagacity 
and  wide  experience  set  himself  to  work  to 
invent  the  machinery  needed  to  develop  into 
an  active  force  the  immense  power  for  evil 
involved  in  an  elaborate  and  well  adjusted 
system  of  fraudulent  naturalization.  The  ease 
with  which  this  particular  fraud  had  been 
managed  in  a  small  way  in  years  past,  led 
this  expert  to  believe  that  a  perfect  machine 
worked  up  to  full  speed,  would  produce 
astonishing,  not  to  say  satisfactory  results — 
and  he  was  not  mistaken.  Under  the  lead 
of  Tammany  Hall,  a  committee,  with  a  large 
force  of  paid  employees,  was  organized  for 
the  purpose  of  obtaining  all  the  names  of 
adult  males  residing  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  who  were  known  not  to  be  citizens.  A 
central  headquarters  was  established,  to  which 
the  "workers"  made  frequent  reports  and 

94 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGKADATION 

deposited  the  lists  of  names  of  the  persons 
designated  for  naturalization.  The  next 
move  was  to  see  that  the  co-operative  courts 
were  supplied  with  the  necessaiy  blanks 
which  were  ordered  of  the  "  New  York 
Printing  Company"  a  ring  concern,  that 
struck  off  105,000  blank  applications  and 
69,000  certificates  of  naturalization;  besides 
these,  which  were  furnished  for  the  exclusive 
use  of  the  courts,  large  issues  were  made  for 
branch  offices  under  the  charge  of  Tammany 
Hall,  which  organization  assumed  the  pay- 
ment of  the  necessary  certificate  fees  to  the 
clerks  of  the  courts  from  which  they  were  to 
be  issued,  and  for  this  purpose  the  "  workers  " 
were  given  40,000  two  dollar  red  tickets  and 
instructed  to  deposit  one  with  a  clerk  of  the 
court  for  each  certificate  of  naturalization 
issued. 

The  preparations  completed,  the  mills  be- 
gan to  grind.  The  Supreme  Court,  which 
had  never  naturalized  before,  simultaneously 
with  the  Superior  opened  wide  its  doors  and 
the  surging  mass  of  unwashed  perjury  rushed 
in  at  each,  and  then  for  days  and  weeks  with- 
out hindrance  or  even  protest,  the  great  orgy 

95 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

went  on — a  veritable  pandemonium  of  lies 
and  a  continuous  revel  of  unheard  of  crime. 
In  each  instance  the  presiding  genius  guid- 
ing this  Hell-born  feast  of  iniquity  was  a 
judge  who  had  recorded  his  solemn  oath  to 
faithfully  administer  the  laws  ;  while  among 
the  whippers-in  of  these  vast  swarms  of  human 
depravities,  were  found  court  officials  eager 
in  the  cause  of  crime  whose  sworn  duty  it 
was  to  assist  in  the  honest  execution  of  the 
laws.  This  carouse  of  crime,  often  with 
closed  doors,  continued  for  fifteen  days, 
while  at  other  times  during  that  period  the 
law  was  openly  violated  with  an  air  of  defi- 
ance born  of  unheard  of  depravity;  and 
scenes  were  witnessed  in  these  high  courts  of 
law  of  a  civilized  nation  (sic)  that  would 
have  disgraced  the  government  of  barbarians. 
One  witness  thus  describes  what  he  saw  in 
Judge  Barnard's  room  of  the  Supreme  Court 
where  sessions  were  held  in  the  evening, 
nominally,  from  seven  to  nine  o'clock,  but 
often  until  after  eleven :  "  He  saw  batches  of 
men  brought  into  court,  averaging  from  140 
to  150  each.  As  they  came  before  the  bench 
they  would  be  divided  into  groups  around 

96 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

four  or  five  Bibles,  one  of  which  would  be 
held  up  by  five  or  six  men  in  the  centre  of 
the  group,  and  the  others  would  either  touch 
it  or  stretch  out  their  hands  towards  it. 
The  clerk  would  then  call  out  the  names,  at 
the  same  time  holding  to  the  judge,  face 
down,  an  application,  upon  the  back  of  which 
the  magistrate,  without  any  examination  of 
the  paper  would  affix  his  initials — the  fiat 
for  naturalization,  no  questions  being  asked 
of  any  person,  either  applicant  or  witnesses." 
He  would  sometimes  swear  en  bloc,  all  the 
applicants  and  witnesses  in  the  room.  Cer- 
tificates stamped  in  blank  with  the  seal  of 
the  court  would  then  be  filled  out  and 
handed  to  any  one  who  had  personated  an 
applicant.  Oftentimes  the  ceremony  of  natu- 
ralization would  be  performed  with  the  wit- 
nesses, no  real  or  fictitious  applicants  being 
present. 

The  "  witness  "  was  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant factors  in  the  success  of  this  rare 
baseness.  Ten  of  them  within  fifteen  days 
swore  to  the  residence  and  good  character  of 
8,468  applicants.  These  standing  witnesses 
appeared  in  the  Supreme  and  Superior  Courts, 

97 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

but  were  known  as  "  Judge  Barnard's  wit- 
nesses "  ;  one  was  identified  as  having  ap- 
peared before  Judge  McCunn  at  least  twenty- 
five  times  in  a  single  evening,  under  as 
many  different  names,  and  Patrick  Goff 
within  three  days  appeared  before  Judge 
Barnard  as  sponsor  for  the  good  character  of 
1,073  applicants. 

The  exact  number  of  honest  or  fraudulent 
certificates  of  naturalization  issued  in  the 
city  of  New  York  in  1868  has  never  been  as- 
certained, but  the  figures,  so  far  as  known, 
are:  Common  Pleas,  3,145;  Superior  Court, 
27,897;  Supreme  Court,  37,138;  total, 68, 180. 
The  number  in  October  alone  was  65,000, 
and  nearly  all  were  issued  by  two  judges  in 
two  courts  in  a  period  of  nineteen  days. 
There  were  also  large  numbers  of  certificates 
signed  and  sealed  with  the  seal  of  the 
courts  and  sent  to  adjoining  counties  in  New 
York,  and  to  the  States  of  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania  and  Ohio.  Probably  10,000 
would  not  be  too  high  an  estimate  for  the 
number  of  unauthorized  certificates  issued  by 
the  courts  in  New  York  city  during  the 
month  of  October  of  that  year.  A  notable 

98 


OUK  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

but  not  surprising  fact  connected  with  this 
series  of  unparalled  crimes,  was  that  eight- 
tenths  of  the  names  of  the  active  agents  en- 
gaged in  it  were  of  Irish  origin.  The  fol- 
lowing paragraph  from  the  report  of  the 
Congressional  Investigating  Committee  gives 
an  accurate  and  comprehensive  description  of 
the  character  of  the  offences  complained  of. 

"Among  the  frauds  practised  under  the 
naturalization  laws  were :  the  false  persona- 
tion of  applicants  under  real  or  assumed 
names ;  the  fabrication  of  applications  for 
naturalization  and  oaths  in  support  of  them, 
with  names  and  applications  of  witnesses 
forged ;  the  granting  of  certificates  of  natu- 
ralization in  ficticious  names  ;  and  on  applica- 
tions regular  in  form,  but  without  the  pres- 
ence of  any  applicants  and  to  persons  not 
entitled  to  them." 

No  incident  could  more  appropriately  illus- 
trate the  character  of  a  New  York  office 
holder  and  the  general  depravity  of  that 
class  than  the  following : — A  few  days  after 
the  election  of  1868  I  had  occasion  to  call  at 
the  office  of  the  clerk  of  the  Superior  Court, 
and  while  there  remarked  upon  what  seemed 

99 


OUK  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

to  me,  to  be  the  unnecessary  length  of  the 
lever  and  great  size  of  the  weights  attached 
to  each  end  of  it,  which  was  used  as  a  han- 
dle to  a  press  for  the  stamping  of  the  seal  of 
the  court  upon  official  documents.  An  as- 
sistant clerk  of  the  court  who  was  present, 
placed  the  cover  of  a  law  book  under  the 
die,  gave  the  lever  a  gentle  swing,  and  nearly 
crushed  a  piece  out  of  a  very  strong  sheep 
binding,  and  at  the  same  time  with  an  air  of 
triumph  and  pride  combined,  exclaimed: 
"  This  press  elected  John  T.  Hoffman  Gov- 
ernor of  the  State  of  New  York.  We  often 
worked  it  all  night,  making  as  many  as  ten 
impressions  upon  naturalization  certificates 
with  one  turn  of  the  lever."  Now  here 
comes  the  point.  This  assistant  clerk  came 
of  a  rather  wealthy  New  York  family  of  the 
approved  business  type.  In  his  childhood 
and  youth  he  had  accomplished  his  share  of 
Sunday  school  and  church  instruction ;  his 
home  had  been  a  comfortable  one,  where 
morality,  sobriety  and  industry  were  the 
leading  domestic  qualities ;  he  closed  his 
youth  period  with  a  fair  education  and  then 
became  a  member  of  the  New  York  Bar, 
100 


OUK  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

And  yet,  with  all  his  advantages  and  intelli- 
gence, he  had  failed  to  discern  that  he  had 
been  a  particeps  criminis  in  the  perpetration 
of  a  monstrous  crime,  against  morality,  the 
laws  of  his  country  and  the  welfare  of  a 
nation,  which  in  any  self-respecting,  law- 
abiding  community  having  the  least  possible 
respect  for  the  honest  administration  of  jus- 
tice, would  have  been  punished  with  im- 
prisonment. 

A  few  weeks  before  the  election  of  1880  I 
visited  the  court  rooms  in  the  city  of  New 
York  for  the  purpose  of  witnessing  the  grind 
of  the  naturalization  mill.  Two  judges  in 
two  different  courts  were  turning  the  han- 
dles of  two  separate  mills ;  both  had  been  on 
the  bench  for  years  and  were  crowned  with 
fair  if  not  good  reputations.  I  saw  one  of 
them  manufacture  citizens  out  of  the  most 
wretched  and  filthy  human  beings  I  had  ever 
beheld  at  the  rate  of  three  in  five  minutes ; 
while  the  other  ground  out  two  and  a  half 
in  the  same  length  of  time.  It  is  quite  safe 
to  assert  that  not  more  than  a  tenth  of  those 
thus  naturalized  were  entitled  to  certificates, 
and  hardly  any  were  fit  to  become  citizens  of 
101 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGKADATION 

any  decent  country.  Upon  this  occasion  as 
upon  many  others,  I  noticed  that  nearly  all 
of  the  witnesses  and  seven-tenths  of  the 
applicants  were  Irish,  many  of  them  appar- 
ently very  fresh  from  Ireland.  A  majority 
of  both  classes  left  the  platform  in  front  of 
the  judge's  seat  with  a  self-satisfied  leer  of 
triumph  for  the  success  of  their  fraud. 

It  has  been  authoritatively  declared  by 
competent  authority,  that  the  act  of  natural- 
ization is  a  judicial  one  which  ought  to  be 
administered  with  great  care.  If  Judges 
performing  this  function  were  governed  by 
that  view  of  the  case,  there  would  be  a  mate- 
rial decrease  in  the  number  of  citizens  manu- 
factured yearly  out  of  objectionable  foreign 
material.  But  the  vicious  rule  of  the  spoils- 
man here,  as  well  as  in  every  other  depart- 
ment of  government  administration,  pro- 
nounces ex  cathredra  his  instructions  for 
another  course ;  and  when  he  points  the  way 
even  reputable  judges  nominated  and  elected 
by  his  dictation  dare  not  disobey  his  orders. 
And  so  it  happens  that  our  elected  judges, 
by  their  acts,  have  proved,  conclusively  that 
they  regard  it  as  a  part  of  their  official  duties, 
102 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

to  perform  corrupt  political  work  for  the 
advantage  of  the  party  that  elected  them  to 
office. 

Experience  has  proved,  in  this  instance  as 
well  as  in  others,  that  the  theory  of  "  The 
Fathers"  in  defining  the  bounds  of  a  free 
government  by  the  people  extended  too  far. 
It  ought  to  have  meant  a  nation  ruled  by 
those  born  upon  its  soil,  with  pride  of  race 
and  sufficient  knowledge  of  National  institu- 
tions to  enable  them  to  vote  honestly  and  act 
intelligently,  and  the  right  of  suffrage  ought 
not  to  have  been  extended  to  ignorant  for- 
eigners. But  since  they  did  elect  to  open 
the  door  and  permit  the  manufacture  of  full- 
fledged  citizens  out  of  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  human  materials,  they  should  have  re- 
stricted control  of  the  modus  operand* 
involved  in  the  manufacture  to  the  general 
government,  and  not  supplemented  one 
blunder  with  another,  i.  e.  giving  the  various 
States  the  power  to  create  citizens  of  the 
United  States. 

A  brief  reference  to  our  own  and  the 
existing  laws  of  other  nations  for  the  regu- 
lation of  the  naturalization  process,  will 
103 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

enable  those  interested  in  that  subject,  to 
judge  between  the  American  and  European 
systems.  But  of  course  we  cannot  hope  for 
any  conversion  to  the  right  way  even  in  this 
most  important  matter,  for  the  average 
American  is  bound  by  accident  of  birth,  to 
be  deaf  and  blind  to  all  that  is  commendable 
in  other  forms  of  government,  and  will  upon 
most  occasions  assert  the  superiority  of  his 
own  work  and  set  it  up  against  the  states- 
manship, wisdom  of  the  ages,  and  experience 
of  the  rest  of  the  world.  In  our  method  of 
citizen  manufacturing  we  stand  alone,  and 
our  laws  were  without  precedent  when 
adopted  and  have  had  no  imitators  since 
among  the  other  nations. 

March  26,  1790  Congress  passed  its  first 
act  regulating  naturalization,  permitting  the 
issuing  of  certificates  of  citizenship  to  free 
white  persons,  who  had  lived  in  the  United 
States  two  years  and  in  the  State  where 
application  was  made  one.  In  1795  the  act 
was  amended  making  a  residence  of  five 
years  in  the  country  a  condition  precedent  to 
application,  and  a  declaration  of  intention  to 
become  a  citizen  of  three  years  prior  to  the 
104 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

issuing  of  a  certificate.  In  1798,  by  another 
amendment  the  term  of  residence  was 
increased  to  fourteen  years,  in  1802  reduced 
to  five  years  and  in  1824  the  time  of  declara- 
tion reduced  to  two.  As  the  law  now  stands 
applicants  must  have  resided  in  the  United 
States  five  years  and  in  the  State  or  territory 
where  application  is  made,  two  years. 
Minors  under  eighteen  when  they  come  to 
the  United  States,  are  entitled  to  become 
citizens  upon  arriving  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  without  previous  declaration.  In  both 
classes  of  application  the  other  requirements 
and  proceedings  are  the  same;  they  must 
prove  to  the  court  good  moral  character  and 
that  they  are  attached  to  the  principles  of 
the  Constitution.  In  1872  an  elaborate  act 
was  passed,  which  among  other  provisions 
had  one  making  it  a  felony  to  obtain  or 
knowingly  assist  in  obtaining  fraudulent 
naturalization.  Notwithstanding  this  legis- 
lative definition  fixing  a  severe  penalty,  the 
crime  is  still  a  common  one  and  flows  on  un- 
disturbed, its  even  way  in  nearly  all  the 
larger  cities  of  the  Union.  The  greater 
number  of  evasions  being  committed  in 
105 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

granting  certificates  to  minors  by  clerks  of 
courts.  Many  of  the  judges,  however,  man- 
age to  do  their  part  by  not  making  searching 
examinations  of  applicants  who  come  before 
them,  which  if  honorably  and  loyally  made, 
would  defeat  at  least  one-half  of  all  the 
applications. 

Prance  is  the  only  European  government 
having  a  law  providing  for  compulsory 
naturalization.  The  first  is  la  grande  natur- 
alization, conferred  by  the  Executive  for 
distinguished  services ;  this  is  discretionary. 
The  second  part  of  the  law  compels  admission 
to  citizenship  after  an  authorized  probation 
of  three  years  living  in  the  country,  after 
twenty-one  years  of  age.  In  Russia  applica- 
tions may  be  made  to  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior  who  may  refuse;  no  appeal.  In 
Prussia  the  superior  Administrative  Author- 
ities under  certain  conditions,  are  empowered, 
not  compelled,  to  naturalize.  In  Italy,  by 
act  of  Parliament  or  Royal  decree,  discretion- 
ary. In  Portugal,  application  may  be  made 
to  the  King,  who  refers  it  to  his  Ministers ; 
discretionary.  In  the  Netherlands,  by  act 
of  the  States  General  approved  by  the  King ; 
106 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

discretionary.  In  Denmark,  application 
approved  by  a  Minister  and  sanctioned  by 
the  King;  discretionary.  In  Sweden,  by 
petition  to  the  King ;  discretionary.  In 
Norway,  granted  by  special  act  of  the  Storth- 
ing, National  Legislature  ;  discretionary,  and 
in  Brazil  by  joint  resolution  of  both  Chambers, 
approved  by  the  Emperor ;  discretionary. 

In  England  any  alien  may  present  an 
application  to  one  of  her  Majesty's  principal 
secretaries  praying  for  a  certificate  of  natur- 
alization, which  must  state : — 

I.     Of  what   state  the   applicant  is  a 
subject. 

II.     His  name,  address,  age,  profession, 
trade  or  other  occupation. 

III.  Whether  he  is  married,  and  has  any 
children  under  age,  residing  with  him,  and  if 
so  to  state  their  names  and  ages. 

IV.  That  during  the  period  of  eight  years 
preceding  the  application,  the  applicant  has 
for  five  years  resided  within  the  Kingdom ; 
(The  place  or  places  of  such  residence  being 
specified)  or  that  during  the  same  period  of 
eight  years,  he  has  for  five  years  been  in  the 
service  of  the  Crown. 

107 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

V.  That  lie  intends  to  reside  in  the  United 
Kingdom  or  serve  under  the  Crown.  This 
statement  must  be  verified  under  oath  of  the 
applicant,  and  the  facts  set  forth  in  the 
memorial  must  be  sustained,  and  the  reputa- 
bility  and  loyalty  of  the  applicant  vouched 
for  by  a  declaration  made  in  like  manner  by 
four  householders  who  are  native-born  Brit- 
ish subjects,  and  neither  of  them  the  agent 
or  solicitor  of  the  memorialist.  The  declara- 
tion may  be  made  by  such  declarents  jointly, 
or  by  each  separately ;  but  each  of  the  declar- 
ents must  in  his  declaration  state,  as  to  him- 
self, the  fact  that  he  is  a  householder,  and  a 
native  born  British  subject,  the  place  of  his 
residence,  and  the  period  during  which  he  has 
known  the  applicant. 

It  will  be  observed  that  these  regulations 
call  for  all  the  facts  needed  to  enable  an 
official  to  act  intelligently ;  but  if  after  giving 
the  whole  statement  careful  consideration,  he 
should  conclude  that  the  applicant  would 
not  make  a  law-abiding  and  self-supporting 
citizen,  he  may  refuse  to  grant  a  certificate 
of  citizenship,  and  from  his  decision  there  is 
no  appeal.  The  act  under  which  the  above 
108 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

regulations  were  framed,  was  passed  in  1870, 
and  is  in  all  respects  what  it  ought  to  be.  It 
properly  guards  the  British  people  from 
intrusion  of  undesirable  classes  from  other 
countries,  and  only  gives  to  strangers  the 
privilege  of  applying,  and  not  the  right  to 
become  citizens.  The  provisions  of  the  act 
are  based  upon  the  proposition  that  the  right 
to  be  incorporated  into  the  household  of  a 
great  nation,  is  a  valuable  one,  which  ought 
not  to  be  bestowed  upon  those  who  merely 
seek  new  homes  under  a  different  national 
status  for  the  sole  purpose  of  bettering  their 
material  condition,  without  in  return,  contri- 
buting anything  of  value  to  the  nation  that 
is  to  warm  them  into  a  new  existence. 

Demagogues  and  money  magnates  will 
declare  that  this  proposition  does  not  apply 
to  aliens  naturalized  in  the  United  States ;  that 
they  have  contributed  largely  to  the  material 
prosperity  of  which  every  American  is  so 
eager  to  boast.  But  in  the  name  of  all  that 
is  manly,  honest  in  private  life  and  pure  in 
politics,  is  there  nothing  in  this  world  worthy 
admiration  but  money  ?  Must  these  virtues 
be  scattered  to  the  winds  before  the  all- 

109 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

worshiped  advance  of  "  American  Progress  " 
— "  Millions,  no  matter  how  obtained  ? " 

There  is  no  doubt  about  it,  the  foreigner 
honestly  and  fraudulently  naturalized,  and 
unnaturalized,  has  helped  to  pile  up  those 
millions.  But  at  what  a  cost.  The  political 
demoralization  and  degradation  of  a  nation 
of  seventy-five  millions  of  human  souls. 
Other  causes  have  contributed  to  bring 
about  these  unfortunate  results.  Foreigners, 
not  all,  but  enough,  were  the  first  to  offer 
their  votes  for  sale  and  proved  to  the  "  boss  " 
their  value  ;  and  the  "  Irish  Groggery  "  has 
furnished  the  acknowledged  exchange  for 
traffic  in  ballots,  and  now  in  nearly  all  the 
larger  cities  these  two  elements  of  wicked- 
ness control  and  direct  the  alleged  free  will 
of  the  people. 

Any  effort  to  attract  public  attention  to 
the  defects  and  abuses  complained  of,  would 
be  incomplete  without  some  reference  to  the 
opinions  of  several  of  those  leaders  in  Con- 
gress who  were  opposed  to  the  insufficient 
and  lax  provisions  incorporated  into  the  law 
and  from  which  all  the  evils  incident  to  our 
methods  of  naturalization  have  grown.  The 
110 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

New  York  Daily  Times  of  April  7,  1877 
contained  a  communication  from  the  writer, 
which  among  other  matters,  gave  extracts 
from  speeches  of  those  opposing  members, 
and  are  now  incorporated  into  this  paper  as 
an  appropriate  conclusion. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  New  York  Times  : 

Our  laws  under  which  naturalizations  are  effected 
are  insufficient,  and  are  administered  with  a  degree 
of  laxity  unkown  in  any  other  country.  The  privi- 
lege of  becoming  a  citizen  of  a  great  republican 
nation  is  of  rare  value,  and  ought  to  be  guardedly 
bestowed  ;  it  should  only  be  granted  after  a  careful 
examination  as  to  general  and  moral  fitness.  Crimi- 
nals, habitual  paupers,  and  imbeciles  ought  to  be 
rigidly  excluded  from  participating  in  elections. 
The  ballot-box  is  our  source  of  power,  and  the  power 
which  is  molded  into  political  form  through  the 
right  to  vote  should  be  both  moral  and  intelligent. 
The  law  as  it  is  now  administered  makes  no  discrimi- 
nation between  classes.  Some  person  unknown  to 
the  court  swears  that  he  has  known  the  applicant 
for  naturalization  for  a  certain  number  of  years,  and 
that  he  has  borne  during  that  time  a  good  moral 
character.  Upon  such  testimony  thousands  of 
111 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

unworthy  citizens  are  yearly  manufactured.  In 
seven  cases  out  of  every  ten,  the  witness  and  appli- 
cant never  meet  until  at  the  courtroom  door  ten 
minutes  before  the  testimony  has  to  be  given. 

During  that  part  of  the  Autumn  of  1868  immedi- 
ately preceding  the  election,  the  naturalization  mill 
was  ground  as  it  never  had  been  ground  before.  It 
was  kept  going  night  and  day  until  about  28,000 
naturalization  certificates  had  been  issued,  20,000  of 
which  it  is  fair  to  assume  are  now  in  the  hands  of 
persons  who  are  not  entitled  to  them.  Add  to  these 
the  number  who  had  before  and  have  since  received 
certificates  obtained  by  fraud,  and  it  may  be  safely 
assumed  that  there  is  in  this  City  and  Brooklyn 
fully  40,000  persons  voting  at  each  election  who 
have  no  right  to  vote.  If  this  assumption  is  true, 
and  Mr.  Tilden  had  been  elected,  would  he  not  now 
be  holding  his  office  by  virtue  of  a  fraudulent  vote  ? 
This  is  a  query  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  some  member 
of  the  great  reform  party  may  answer. 

During  the  Summer  of  1869  I  happened  to  be  in 
the  office  of  the  Clerk  of  the  Superior  Court.  While 
there  my  attention  was  attracted  to  a  powerful 
machine  used  for  the  purpose  of  impressing  the  seal 
of  the  court  upon  official  documents.  A  deputy 
clerk,  of  whom  I  asked  some  questions  concerning 
it,  stated  that  € '  it  was  this  seal  which  made  Hoff- 
112 


OUK  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

man  Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York."  He  also 
informed  me  that  the  demand  for  naturalization  cer- 
tificates at  that  time  was  so  great  (the  Autumn  of 
1868)  that  they  often  made  ten  impressions  with  one 
turn  of  the  lever.  This  abuse,  which  we  have  become 
used  to,  has  never  received  the  attention  which  its 
importance  demands.  Both  political  parties  have 
known  of  and  tolerated  these  yearly  frauds  ;  one  has 
aided,  abetted,  and  profited  by  it,  while  the  other 
has  not  cared  to  expose  it,  or  rather  to  attempt  to 
remedy  it,  for  the  reason  that  its  managers  have 
always  hoped  (and  in  vain)  that  they  might  get  a 
slice  of  the  foreign  vote,  which  in  this  City  is  com- 
pact, and  generally  goes  all  one  way.  The  time 
has  now  arrived  when  the  Eepublican  Party  can  afford 
to  grapple  with  this  evil,  and  it  ought  to  take  upon 
itself  the  duty  of  presenting  such  a  law  for  the  con- 
sideration of  Congress,  which,  if  enacted,  will  in  the 
future  render  a  repetition  of  these  frauds  impossible. 
In  Congress,  Feb.  3,  1790,  occurred  the  first  dis- 
cussion upon  the  "  Eule  of  naturalization."  It  ex- 
tended through  several  days,  and  after  a  most  earn- 
est debate  the  law  as  it  now  stands  was  ordered  to  a 
third  reading.  A  few  extracts  from  this  debate  may 
prove  of  interest.  The  objections  to  the  law  were 
the  same  then  as  now,  but  the  arguments  which  were 
urged  in  its  favor  would  hardly  apply  at  this  time. 
113 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Mr.  John  Lawrence,  of  New  York,  said  :  "  The 
reason  for  admitting  foreigners  to  the  rights  of 
citizenship  among  us  is  the  encouragement  of  emi- 
gration, as  we  now  have  a  large  tract  of  country  to 
people."  During  the  whole  of  the  debate  this  was 
the  only  reason  assigned  for  admitting  foreigners  to 
the  rights  of  citizenship.  Mr.  Madison  was  very 
conservative  in  his  views,  urged  great  caution  in 
framing  the  law,  and  said  :  "  When  we  are  consid- 
ering the  advantages  that  may  result  from  an  easy 
mode  of  naturalization,  we  ought  also  to  consider 
the  cautions  necessary  to  guard  against  abuses.  It 
is  no  doubt  very  desirable  that  we  should  hold  out 
as  many  inducements  as  possible  for  the  worthy  part 
of  mankind  to  come  and  settle  among  us,  and  throw 
their  fortunes  into  a  common  lot  with  ours.  But 
why  is  this  desirable  ?  Not  merely  to  swell  the 
catalogue  of  people.  No,  Sir.  It  is  to  increase  the 
wealth  and  strength  of  the  community,  and  those 
who  acquire  the  rights  of  citizenship  without  adding 
to  the  wealth  and  strength  of  the  community,  are 
not  the  people  we  want.  *  *  *  I  should  be 
exceedingly  sorry,  Sir,  that  our  rule  of  naturalization 
excluded  a  single  person  of  good  fame  that  meant 
to  incorporate  himself  into  our  society.  On  the 
other  hand,  I  do  not  wish  that  any  man  should 
acquire  the  privlege  but  such  as  would  be  a  real 
114 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

addition  to  the  wealth  and  strength  of  the  United 
States." 

Mr.  Smith,  of  South  Carolina,  in  urging  a  longer 
term  of  probation,  asked  "  what  could  he  [the  emi- 
grant] know  of  the  Government  the  moment  he 
landed  ?  Little  or  nothing.  How  then  could  he 
ascertain  who  was  the  proper  person  to  legislate  or 
judge  of  the  laws  ?  Certainly  gentlemen  would  not 
pretend  to  bestow  a  privilege  upon  a  man  which  he 
is  incapable  of  using  ?  In  New  York  how  many 
worthless,  ignorant  emigrants — vicious,  incapable  of 
reading  or  writing,  having  neither  property  nor 
habits  of  industry — have  had  this  inestimable  privi- 
lege bestowed  upon  them  ?  The  answer  is,  enough 
always  to  control  the  local,  and  in  many  instances 
the  State,  and  in  several  instances  the  general  elec- 
tions. Those  who  know  how  New  York  has  been 
ruled  and  robbed  are  fully  qualified  to  judge  of  the 
value  of  a  Government  which  comes  from  such 
unclean  and  incapable  sources. 

Mr.  Jackson,  of  Georgia,  took  very  high  and  ultra 
grounds.  He  said  that  he  conceived  the  present 
subject  to  be  of  high  importance  to  the  respecta- 
bility and  character  of  the  American  name.  The 
veneration  he  had  for,  and  the  attachment  he  had 
to,  this  country,  made  him  extremely  anxious  to 
preserve  its  good  fame  from  injury.  He  hoped  to 
115 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

see  the  title  of  American  citizen  as  highly  venerated 
and  respected  as  was  that  of  a  citizen  of  old  Koine. 

"I  am  clearly  of  the  opinion  that,  rather  than 
have  the  common  class  of  vagrants,  paupers,  and 
other  outcasts  of  Europe,  that  we  had  better  be  as 
we  are,  and  trust  to  the  natural  increase  of  our  pop- 
ulation for  inhabitants.  If  the  motion  made  by  the 
gentleman  from  South  Carolina  should  obtain,  such 
people  will  find  an  easy  admission,  indeed,  to  the 
rights  of  citizenship.  Much  too  easy  for  the  interests 
of  the  people  of  America.  Nay,  Sir,  the  terms 
required  by  the  bill  on  the  table  are,  in  my  mind, 
too  easy.  I  think,  before  a  man  is  admitted  to 
enjoy  the  high  and  inestimable  privileges  of  a  citi- 
zen of  America,  that  something  more  than  a  mere 
residence  is  necessary.  I  think  he  ought  to  pass 
some  time  in  a  state  of  probation,  and  at  the  end  of 
the  term  be  able  to  bring  testimonials  of  decent  and 
proper  behavior  ;  no  man  who  would  be  a  credit  to 
a  community  could  think  such  terms  difficult  or 
indelicate  ;  if  bad  men  should  be  dissatisfied  on 
this  account,  and  should  decline  to  immigrate,  the 
regulation  will  have  a  beneficial  effect ;  for  we  had 
better  keep  such  out  of  the  country  than  admit 
them  into  it." 

Mr.  Theodore  Sedgwick,  of  Massachusetts,  was 
against  "  the  indiscriminate  admission  of  foreigners 
116 


OUK  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

to  the  highest  rights  of  human  nature  on  terms  so 
incompetent  to  secure  society  from  being  overrun 
by  the  outcasts  of  Europe  ;  besides,  the  policy  of 
settling  the  vacant  territory  by  immigration  is  of  a 
doubtful  nature.  He  believed,  in  the  United  States, 
the  human  species  might  be  multiplied  by  a  more 
eligible  and  convenient  mode  than  what  seemed  to 
be  contemplated  by  the  motion  now  before  the  com- 
mittee. He  was  well  satisfied  for  himself  that  there 
existed  no  absolute  necessity  for  peopling  it  in  this 
way;  and  if  there  was  no  absolute  necessity,  he 
thought  Congress  might  use  their  discretion,  and 
admit  none  but  respectable  and  worthy  characters, 
such  only  as  were  fit  for  the  society  into  which  they 
were  blended." 

Mr.  Stone,  of  Maryland,  said":  "  I  would  let  the 
term  of  residence  be  long  enough  to  accomplish  two 
objects  before  I  would  consent  to  admit  a  foreigner 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  politics  of  this 
country.  First,  he  should  have  an  opportunity  of 
knowing  the  circumstances  of  our  Government,  and 
in  consequence  thereof  shall  have  admitted  the 
truth  of  the  principles  we  hold.  Second,  that  he 
should  have  acquired  a  taste  for  this  kind  of  gov- 
ernment. And  in  order  that  both  of  these  things 
may  take  place  in  such  full  manner  as  to  make  him 
worthy  of  admission  into  our  society,  I  think  a  term 
117 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

of  from  four  to  seven  years  ought  to  be  required. 
A  foreigner  who  comes  here  is  not  desirous  of  inter- 
fering immediately  in  our  politics,  nor  is  it  proper 
that  he  should.  *  *  *  The  admission  of  a  great 
number  of  foreigners  to  all  places  of  the  Govern- 
ment may  tincture  the  system  with  the  dregs  of 
their  former  habits,  and  corrupt  what  we  believe 
the  most  pure  of  all  human  inventions." 

Mr.  Jackson,  who  was  very  anxious  for  a  long  term 
of  probation,  said  :  "  But  with  respect  to  residence 
and  probation,  before  an  alien  is  entitled  to  the 
privilege  of  voting  at  elections,  I  am  very  clear  it  is 
necessary,  unless  the  gentlemen  mean  to  render  the 
rank  of  an  American  citizen  the  maygame  of  the 
world." 

Mr.  Sylvester,  of  New  York,  thought  "  it  neither 
for  the  honor  nor  interest  of  the  United  States  to 
admit  aliens  to  the  right  of  citizenship  indiscrimin- 
ately ;  he  was  clearly  in  favor  of  a  term  of  proba- 
tion, and  that  their  good  behavior  shall  be  vouched 
for."  He  suggested  the  idea  of  lodging  the  power  of 
admitting  foreigners  to  be  naturalized  in  the  Dis- 
trict Judges. 

After  carefully  reading  the  whole  debate,  a  con- 
clusion is  readily  arrived  at  that  those  who  took  part 
in  it  were  anxious  to  establish  three  conditions  as  a 
basis  of  naturalization.  First,  a  sufficient  number 
118 


OUE  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

of  years  of  probation.  Second,  qualifications  which 
would  make  their  possessor  a  desirable  citizen  of  a 
republic.  Third,  proof  of  good  character  during 
probation.  When  they  voted  for  the  law  they  prob- 
ably thought  that  with  all  of  these  conditions  clearly 
set  forth,  it  would  be  sufficient  for  the  purposes  for 
which  it  was  intended.  They  never  dreamed  that 
within  three-quarters  of  a  century  corrupt  politicians 
would  violate  not  only  this,  but  any  other  and  all 
laws  which  might  stand  in  the  way  of  their  party 
success.  Unfortunately,  the  history  of  the  last  few 
years  compels  the  admission  that  many  of  our  gov- 
erning politicians  have  become  thus  corrupt,  and 
that  the  law  in  question  in  this  State,  to  a  very  great 
extent,  has  become  a  dead  letter ;  thousands  of 
persons  of  the  vilest  classes  have  been  naturalized 
who  had  not  been  in  the  country  a  year  previous  to 
their  naturalization,  and  all  the  evils  anticipated  by 
the  statesmen  of  1790  have  been  more  than  realized. 
There  is  no  remedy  short  of  the  enactment  of  a  new 
law  which  should  take  the  right  to  naturalize  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  States,  and  should  embrace  the 
following  propositions,  or  their  equivalents  : 

First — The  term  of  probation  in  all  instances 
should  be  at  least  seven  years. 

Second — No  application  should  be  made  by  any 
person  under  eighteen  years  of  age. 
119 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Third — The  years  of  probation  to  date  from  the 
time  of  the  first  application  to  become  a  citizen. 

Fourth — The  second  and  final  application  should 
be  for  the  certificate  of  citizenship,  based  upon  the 
production  of  evidence  of  the  first  application  and 
the  testimony  of  at  least  three  witnesses,  establish- 
ing the  good  character  of  the  applicant,  that  he  has 
been  self-supporting,  and  is  able  to  read  and  write 
in  the  English  language. 

Fifth — The  power  to  naturalize  should  be  given 
exclusively  to  the  United  States  District  Court, 
which,  in  the  event  of  a  necessity,  ought  to  have 
power  to  appoint  in  the  large  cities  a  Naturalization 
Commissioner,  who  should  be  under  the  direct  con- 
trol of  the  court. 

Sixth — The  names  of  all  applicants  should  be 
advertised  and  printed  in  some  conspicuous  place  a 
reasonable  time  before  the  final  application,  in  order 
that  any  citizen  having  valid  objections  to  the 
naturalization  of  any  applicant  may  have  an  opportu- 
nity to  present  them. 

In  closing  this  communication,  I  wish  to  state 
my  own  convictions  so  plainly  that  those  who  read 
may  understand  them.  I  believe  it  to  be  a  fact  sus- 
ceptible of  proof,  that  the  dominant  political  power 
in  the  State  of  New  York  is  predicated  upon  a  class 
vote  which  has  no  right  either  in  morals  or  law  to 
120 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

exist ;  or  in  other  words,  the  plain  English  of  the 
proposition  is,  that  we  are  ruled,  and  have  been 
robbed,  by  a  set  of  politicians  who  are  voted  into 
office  by  persons  who  are  not  citizens. 

RUSH  C.  HAWKINS. 
NEW  YORK,  Saturday,  March  31,  1877. 


121 


INKE  "THE  BOSS."* 

THE  Boss  in  American  politics  is  sui 
generis.  Born  of  universal  suffrage,  nursed 
and  fed  upon  the  filth  of  ward  politics  in  the 
City,  with  a  twin  brother — the  child  of  the 
cross-roads  in  the  country,  he  has  grown  to 
be  an  unmatchable  monster.  He  has  neither 
peer  nor  rival,  and  his  infamy  is  at  once 
monumental  and  imperishable.  He  stands 
quite  alone  and  resembles  no  other  creature 
or  thing  on  earth,  and  there  is  nothing,  save 
one  of  his  own  kind,  he  cares  to  resemble. 

As  a  rule  his  origin  is  obscure  and  his 
progress  through  life  has  not  been  a  success. 
In  most  instances  he  has  tried  many  occupa- 
tions and  failed  in  all ;  and  as  a  last  resort — 
a  sort  of  halting  place  between  the  peniten- 
tiary and  pauper  asylum — he  embraces  poli- 
tics, and  at  once  his  great  capacity  develops 
itself.  Light  long  hidden  beneath  the  sur- 
face of  supposed  incapacity,  now  illuminates 
the  political  horizon  far  and  wide.  The  low 

*  Written  in  1886. 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

cunning  he  has,  enables  him  to  see  the  one 
necessarily  objective  point ;  which  is,  to  make 
himself  a  necessity  to  some  one  of  the  reign- 
ing "  Bosses  "  who  may  desire  further  emol- 
uments and  promotion.  This  he  accomplishes 
in  various  devious  ways  : — he  frowns,  flatters, 
bows,  scrapes  and  bends.  There  is  no  humil- 
iation so  great  that  he  will  not  bear  it,  and 
there  is  no  work  too  dirty  for  his  willing 
hands  to  do.  After  he  has  danced  atten- 
dance for  months  and  often  years,  to  a 
"  Boss  "  in  office  or  in  power,  he  at  last 
succeeds  in  obtaining  some  sort  of  public 
employment  for  himself.  Then  if  he  is 
possessed  of  the  true  qualities  of  a  "  Boss," 
he  commences  to  cast  anchors  to  the  wind- 
ward for  the  advancement  and  safety  of  his 
own  frail  craft;  and  when  the  time  for 
kedging  comes  he  is  sure  to  be  found  at  the 
rope  ready  for  a  pull. 

His  methods  are  ingenious  and  sometimes 
wonderf  ul,  but  the  one  most  in  vogue  is  the 
building  up  of  a  little  ring  composed  of 
self  seeking,  bummer  politicians  who  are 
willing  to  obey  orders  and  work  for  small 
compensation.  But  there  is  no  exact  formula 
123 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

for  the  creation  and  manufacture  of  a 
"  Boss."  Often  the  incipient  starts  business 
by  furnishing  a  list  for  registers  of  election 
and  poll-clerks,  and  if  any  considerable  num- 
ber of  them  are  appointed,  then  another  new 
"Boss"  may  be  considered  to  have  made 
a  fair  commencement.  He  has  now  become 
known  as  a  "  local  statesman  "  with  power  to 
give  places : — his  fame  and  reputation  in- 
creases with  each  new  employment  and  his 
success  is  assured. 

His  next  move  is  to  become  attached  to 
the  head  of  some  municipal,  State  or  Federal 
department,  and  by  dint  of  persistence  and 
patient  irresistance  to  snubs  and  rebuffs 
without  number,  he  finally  succeeds  in  ob- 
taining for  his  coming  retainers,  positions 
where  they  do  but  little  work  and  draw  con- 
siderable pay.  The  creatures  who  are 
selected  for  these  appointments  are  not 
supposed,  in  any  way,  to  be  fitted  for  the 
places  they  are  to  occupy  in  the  public  ser- 
vice. They  are  only  the  shouters  and  heelers 
of  a  coming  "  Boss,"  and  consequently  must 
be  supported  at  public  expense.  There  are 
also  many  other  ways  of  lifting  the  coming 
124 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

potentate  into  power.  Among  the  most 
potent  is  the  cultivation  of,  and  close  alliance 
with,  the  keepers  of  corner  groggeries.  This 
class  is  always  sure  rof  the  familiar  nod  and 
friendly  grasp;  and  sometimes  when  his 
purse  is  fat  with  the  results  of  public  plunder, 
the  "Boss"  drops  in,  in  a  friendly  way, 
and  stands  treat  all  around — for  "the 
boys." 

When  a  veiy  wise  and  astute  "Boss" 
meets  an  opponent,  he  does  not  talk,  but 
saves  the  expression  of  his  profound  and 
patriotic  convictions  upon  public  affairs  for 
those  who  agree  with  him.  By  not  getting 
into  unwise  disputes  he  keeps  his  blood  cool, 
profits  by  his  silence  and  accumulates  wis- 
dom. These  humble  beginnings  accom- 
panied by  discretion  are  the  roadways  which 
lead  to  political  wealth,  and  thus  slowly  and 
surely  does  the  patriot  statesman  lay  the 
foundation  for  future  greatness. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  years,  this  adept  in 
political  chicanery  has  made  himself  so  useful 
to  some  reigning  monarch  of  a  political  unit, 
that  his  position  has  become  fully  assured. 
He  who  was  once  obscure  and  lowly  is  now 
125 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

admitted  to  the  inner  circle  and  consulted 
upon  all  important  party  measures.  He  is 
elected  a  delegate  to  a  local  or  State,  and  some- 
times to  a  National  convention,  but  in  either 
event,  only  for  the  clearly  denned  purpose  of 
carrying  out  the  orders  of  a  superior  "  Boss  "; 
and  so  well  does  he  perform  the  servile  task 
imposed  upon  him  that  his  reputation 
becomes  established,  and  he  is  at  last 
regarded,  far  and  wide,  as  a  necessary  cog  in 
the  biggest  wheel  of  the  party  machine. 
Thereafter  his  way  is  clear,  and  the  gratifica- 
tion of  his  most  lofty  ambition  possible.  If 
he  is  so  fortunate  as  to  become  an  alderman, 
he  then  snuffs  the  political  breeze  blowing  in 
the  direction  of  the  office  of  Mayor;  and  he 
sighs  for  deeper  municipal  flesh  pots.  Should 
he  become  a  member  of  the  Assembly,  he 
soon  comes  to  regard  the  steps  to  the  Senate 
Chamber  as  apart  of  his  political  property, 
and  occasionally  he  casts  a  longing  glance  at 
the  soft  cushion  which  adorns  the  guberna- 
torial chair.  He  dreams  of  the  United 
States  Senate  and  White  House,  for  he 
knows  that  to  him  all  things  are  possible. 
His  ways  in  office  are  patterned  after  those 
126 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

of  the  typical  "  Heathen  Chinee."  Political 
aggrandizement  holds  the  first  place  in  his 
official  mind ; — public  duty  always  the  last. 
To  the  first  he  is  usually  competent : — to  the 
last  incompetent. 

If  he  be  a  true  statesman  in  its  present 
accepted  highest  sense,  then  he  is  truly  great 
at  secret  combinations  and  bargains  with 
corrupt  "  Bosses  "  of  the  opposite  party.  In 
New  York  those  who  have  succeeded  have 
shown  great  aptitude  in  this  particular  field 
of  political  enterprise.  If  the  midnight 
history  of  the  "  Bosses,"  of  both  parties,  in 
the  City  of  New  York,  could  be  written,  it 
would  make  one  of  the  most  interesting, 
humiliating  and  degrading  chapters  of  politi- 
cal history  known  to  our  later  times.  In 
the  hour  of  danger  when  a  receiving  "  Boss," 
who  has  not  divided  the  spoils  of  office  satis- 
factorily with  his  "pals"  is  threatened  with 
ejection  from  position  and  power  by  his  own 
party,  he  casts  around  for  sympathy  and 
relief,  which  he  usually  finds  in  a  corrupt 
combination  with  the  "  Bosses  "  who  run  the 
opposite  party  machine. 

A  few  times  in  the  course  of  a  decade,  an 
127 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

outside  party — a  layman — has  an  attack  of 
ambition  to  enter  politics.  Sometimes  this 
victim  of  an  unwarrantable  and  intrusive 
desire  to  tread  upon  the  preserves  of  the 
11  Bosses,"  is  of  a  well-to-do,  not  to  say  decent 
American  family.  His  first  step,  to  join 
some  local  organization,  is  easily  accom- 
plished. He  works  some  and  pays  prodig- 
iously, and  in  due  course  of  time  makes  known 
his  wants  for  some  sort  of  a  nomination,  to 
the  reigning  "  Boss."  If,  after  careful  exami- 
nation, his  spinal  column  is  found  to  consist 
of  a  material  out  of  which  a  jelly  fish  might 
be  made,  he  is  permitted  to  receive  some 
sort  of  a  nomination.  Sometimes  he  is  elected, 
but  whether  he  is  or  not,  the  quantity  of 
financial  blood  drawn  is  about  the  same.  If 
elected  he  has  but  one  course  to  pursue  ;  he 
must  turn  demagogue  if  he  would  succeed, 
and  abjectly, without  question,  do  the  bidding 
of  his  immediate  "Boss."  Otherwise  his 
political  life  will  be  short  and  his  official  end- 
ing unsatisfactory  and  inglorious.  Often 
these  recruits  from  the  ranks  of  private  life 
make  themselves  so  willingly  useful,  that 
they  are  not  only  re-elected  but  promoted. 
128 


OUK  POLITICAL   DEGRADATION 

There  have  been  several  notable  instances  of 
success  among  this  class. 

Generally  the  staying  in  or  going  out  of 
office,  of  the  person  of  the  layman  class,  who 
cares  for  honors  and  not  spoils,  turns  upon 
the  question  of  promotion.  If  he  makes 
himself  very  useful  to  the  immediate  "Boss," 
and  is  willing  to  remain  upon  the  plane 
stepped  upon  when  he  entered  the  political 
arena  he  may  stay;  but  if  he  is  ambitious 
and  demands  promotion,  which  to  his  "  Boss  " 
may  seem  unreasonable,  he  is  without  the 
least  hesitation  ejected  from  the  hive  of 
party  workers  never  again  to  taste  the  honied 
sweets  of  office.  A  neophyte  cannot  expect 
complete  success  unless  he  abandons  good 
faith,  decency,  the  assertions  of  honest  prin- 
ciples and  regularly  "  joins  the  band  "  ;  then 
if  he  is  apt  at  intrigue,  he  is  at  once  on  an 
equality  with  his  surroundings  and  may 
demand  a  fair  division  of  emoluments. 

There  are  many  occasions  when  the 
u  Boss,"  in  the  role  of  a  profound  and  ponder- 
ous statesman,  appears  to  enormous  advan- 
tage, but  if  we  would  see  him  when  he  is 
wonderfully  and  fearfully  great,  not  to  say 
129 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

grand,  we  must  follow  him  to  an  important 
convention.  Here  we  find  him  at  his  best, 
away  from  home,  where  he  meets  none  save 
of  his  own  kind,  many  with  opposing  inter- 
ests which  may  conflict  with  the  well-laid 
.schemes  of  this  or  that  particular  "  Boss.1' 

Our  statesman  arrives  upon  the  scene 
armed  from  head  to  foot  and  eager  for  the 
fray.  He  pretends  to  be  as  bold  as  a  lion, 
while  the  real  fact  is,  he  has  the  courage  of  a 
rabbit  and  the  aggressiveness  of  a  lamb.  He 
is  discreet  when  it  comes  to  blows  and  never 
fights  openly.  He  seeks  the  dark  and  quiet 
corner,  and  after  the  manner  of  "  Cypher 
Alley,"  whispers  his  belligerent  threats  and 
arguments  into  the  ears  of  those  he  opposes. 
Like  that  typical  emblem  of  wisdom,  the 
owl,  he  hunts  his  game  in  the  dark  only,  and 
never  ruffles  his  feathers  or  shows  his  claws 
during  the  daylight.  He  has  however  one 
quality  which  he  cannot  disguise,  and  that  is 
his  sublime  and  silent  confidence  in  his  own 
weighty  impressiveness  and  dignified  deport- 
ment. If  he  be  really  a  very  great  "  Boss  " 
and  statesman,  all-powerful  at  home,  he  rises 
far  above  the  awful  height  of  his  local  dig- 
130 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

nity  when  abroad.  His  advice  is  seldom 
given  and  his  words  are  mighty; — his  ap- 
pearance respectable  and  severe,  well  calcu- 
lated to  impress  the  rural  beholder  who  has 
not  been  accustomed  to  familiar  intercourse 
with  real  greatness. 

The  midnight  prelude  to  the  morning  con- 
vention is  the  opportunity  supreme  for  the 
exercise  of  the  genius  of  the  astute  "  Boss". 
If  we  would  behold  him  at  his  best,  rising  to 
the  loftiest  heights  of  his  dark-lantern  states- 
manship, we  should  be  with  him  upon  one 
of  these  great  occasions  and  witness  his  rare 
ability  for  making  combinations  and  formu- 
lating schemes  for  success  on  the  morrow. 
We  would  also  come  to  know  of  his  marve- 
lous power  at  hewing  out  planks  for  party 
platforms  which  say  much  and  mean  nothing ; 
which  deceive  without  showing  the  decep- 
tion. At  this  sort  of  work  he  is  without  a 
rival,  and  we  would  naturally  arrive  at  the 
conclusion  that  Macchiavelli  and  Kaunitz 
would  be  mere  shadows  in  the  art  of  diplo- 
macy, by  the  side  of  this  ward  or  cross-roads 
adept. 

These  later  remarks  apply  more  partic- 
131 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

ularly  to  the  Republican  "  Boss  "  tlian  to  the 
like  commodity  of  the  Democratic  persuasion. 
The  former  usually  indulges  in  black  suits, 
high  hats,  clean  shirt  fronts,  and  often  knows 
the  uses  of  soap — in  a  double  sense ;  while 
the  latter  may  be  careless  about  such  trifles 
as  dress,  cleanliness,  etc.,  and  cares  very  little 
about  his  personal  appearance,  or  what  may 
be  said  or  thought  of  him  so  long  as  he  wins 
the  game  and  has  what  he  calls  a  good  time ; 
which  often  consists  of  unlimited  whiskey, 
tobacco  and  an  occasional  opportunity  to 
make  acquaintance  with  the  contents  of  a 
champagne  bottle. 

The  Democratic  "  Boss"  is  not  so  sordid  as 
his  Republican  brother.  The  former  makes 
by  hook  or  by  crook,  literally,  a  good  sum  of 
money,  and  then  "like  a  man  "  he  spends  it 
with  his  "pals"  in  having  a  jollification,  and 
when  his  last  dollar  has  disappeared  and  the 
feast  ended,  he  proclaims  to  the  world,  and 
glories  in  the  fact,  that  he  is  "  dead  broke." 

Expensive  frivolities  the  "  Boss  "  of  the 
other  strip  never  indulges  in.  Like  the 
good  little  boy  from  Ohio,  he  puts  his  money 
away  in  his  little  bag.  He  tries  the  formal 

132 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

respectabilities  of  every  day  life,  goes  in  for 
pews  at  fashionable  churches  and  so  shapes 
his  outward  conduct  as  to  lead  the  world  to 
believe  that  he  is  what  he  is  not.  The 
"  Boss  "  of  the  Democracy  has  at  least  one 
advantage — he  is  no  hypocrite.  He  knows 
that  he  is  neither  respectable  nor  respected, 
and  he  cares  for  neither  so  long  as  his  stom- 
ach is  full  and  he  has  a  fairly  tight  roof  for 
a  shelter.  There  is  a  certain  kind  of  devil-a 
-care-come-take-a-drink  good  fellowship  about 
him,  which  to  a  person  of  not  over  fastidious 
taste  is  not  altogether  repulsive.  It  might 
not  be  in  correct  taste  to  say  that  we  prefer 
him  to  the  other  sort ;  but,  as  "  Bosses  "  go, 
we  must  admit  that  he  has  his  commendable 
qualities. 

No  country  in  the  Christian  world  can 
show  a  more  voracious  and  exacting,  or 
probably,  a  more  numerous  army  of  tax  con- 
sumers than  the  United  States.  It  often 
divides  itself  into  separate  bodies  for  the 
protection  of  what  they  assume  to  be  their 
rights  ;  and  although  very  much  better  paid 
than  any  other  foreign  government  employees 
of  like  grades,  they  are  far  from  being  satis- 
133 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

fied.  Their  cry  is  always,  in  effect,  to  the 
party  in  power  :  "  More  pay  and  less  work 
or  we  will  vote  you  out  at  the  next  election." 
When  dissatisfaction  reaches  the  acute  stage, 
corruption  funds  are  raised,  a  "  Boss "  is 
enlisted  in  their  cause  who  joins  with  the 
professional  lobbyist  and  the  halls  of  the 
lawmakers  are  assailed.  The  "  Boss,"  how- 
ever, is  as  usual  astute  and  coy,  estimates 
votes,  ponders  the  direction  of  their  flowing 
and  probable  "  effect  upon  the  party,"  before 
accepting  employment.  This  vast  army  com- 
posed of  officeholders  and  other  government 
employees,  while  often  pursuing  lesser  and 
divided  interests,  can  always  be  relied  upon 
when  important  party  interests  are  at  stake. 

It  is  a  part  of  the  force,  in  fact  the  greater 
part,  which  in  the  hands  of  the  "  Boss  "  con- 
trols our  government  and  shapes  the  desti- 
nies of  a  nation  of  seventy  millions  of  human 
beings,  whose  territorial  possessions  are 
among  the  largest  and  richest  ever  possessed 
by  a  nation. 

In  this  demagogue-ridden  country  the 
average  citizen  who  pursues  any  other  occu- 
pation than  politics,  officeholding  or  office 
134 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

hunting,  has  no  more  to  say  about  the  candi- 
dates who  are  to  be  voted  into  office  than  he 
would  have  if  he  lived  in  the  geographic 
center  of  the  polar  regions.  The  respect- 
able and  tax-paying  citizen  is  entirely  relieved 
from  taking  any  part  in  the  selection  of 
candidates  for  office.  He  is  as  effectually 
debarred  from  having  any  voice  in  govern- 
mental affairs  of  his  own  country,  as  are  those 
who  are  declared  incompetent  to  vote,  such 
as  idiots,  criminals  and  insane  persons. 

Formerly  the  average  "  Boss  "  was  satisfied 
with  a  good  fat  paying  office  with  incidental 
pickings,  where  in  the  course  of  a  few  years 
he  could  save  up  a  fair  competence  for  the 
balance  of  his  life.  Now,  however,  his  vaunt- 
ing ambition  soars  to  the  loftiest  heights  in 
the  firmament  of  politics;  and  he  hopes  and 
sighs  for  positions  of  honor  and  profit  which 
fifty  years  ago  he  would  not  have  dared  to 
dream  of.  He  sees  written  upon  the  pages 
of  his  special  book  of  fate  all  sorts  of  possi- 
bilities. He  passes  in  and  out  of  the  door  of 
the  Gubernatorial  establishment  as  though 
he  owned  the  whole  —  from  cellar  to  gar- 
ret. He  takes  a  sly  side  glance  at  the  ample 
135 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

chairs  in  the  United  States  Senate,  and  squints 
hopefully  in  the  direction  of  the  Executive 
larder.  These  visions  come  only  to  the  ideal 
"  Boss "  who  has  achieved  more  than  an 
ordinaiy  modicum  of  party  and  officeholding 
success.  Such  dreams  are  not  for  the  hum- 
ble worker  in  the  ranks.  He  must  be  satis- 
fied with  little  and  be  squeezed  of  much  of 
that  little  without  "  squealing." 

Perhaps  the  best  type  of  a ."  Boss  "  is  the 
sleek  smooth-tongued,  piety- varnished,  cleri- 
cally-clad individual  who  does  not  hold  office, 
but  contents  himself  with  taking  a  loaf  here, 
a  fish  there,  and  a  delve  whenever  he  may 
find  an  unguarded  flesh  pot  within  his  reach. 
We  have  many  notable  specimens  of  this 
sort.  They  are  the  fortunate  statesmen 
called  upon  by  administrations  for  the  per- 
formance of  special  and  peculiar  services, 
which  may  seem  to  be,  and  in  many  instances 
are,  beyond  and  outside  the  province  of  any 
particular  government  official  or  bureau ;  and 
also  in  a  delicate  party  emergency  to  assist 
and  advise  an  official  who  may  be  trying  to 
solve  a  difficult  political  puzzle.  These  stray 
jobs  may  truly  be  called  the  real  golden 
136 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

opportunities-bonanzas  par  excellence,  and  a 
sharp  "  Boss "  who  has  been  the  fortunate 
recipient  of  a  few  such  incidental  employ- 
ments, may  without  fear  of  question  or  dis- 
pute, fix  his  own  compensation  and  thereby 
secure  a  competency  for  life.  The  writer 
has  known  personally  several  of  these  spe- 
cially favored  patriots,  and  has  no  hesitation 
in  declaring  that  he  has  found  them,  in  their 
particular  spheres  geniuses  of  the  first  order, 
worthy  of  the  parties  responsible  for  their 
political  existence  and  support,  the  communi- 
ties which  tolerate  them,  and  the  so-called 
free  government  which  favors  their  methods 
and  peculiar  pursuits. 

It  is  this  creature,  possible  under  no  other 
form  of  government,  that  has  brought  us  to 
our  present  degraded,  disgraceful  and  low 
estate  politically.  Since  the  consolidation  of 
power  into  his  hands,  all  or  nearly  all,  politi- 
cal bodies  have  become  corrupt.  Even  the 
judicial  bench,  the  once  sacred  ermine  of  the 
great  conservative  power  which  administers 
the  laws,  has  been  besmeared  with  the  filth 
and  slime  of  the  "  Boss  " .  Up  to  forty 
years  ago  but  few  accusations  intimating 
137 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

corrupt  practices  in  the  Halls  of  tlie  Federal 
Legislature  had  been  uttered ;  and  up  to 
fifty  years  ago  the  State  legislatures  had  been 
comparatively  pure  and  rather  free  from  the 
influence  of  corruptionists.  Now  all  that  is 
changed  and  we  may  assert  without  fear  of 
contradiction,  that  there  are  not  a  half-a-dozen 
legislative  bodies  within  our  territorial 
boundaries  without  their  price.  In  nearly 
every  instance  it  is  merely  a  question  of  how 
much.  If  a  municipal  corporation  or  private 
citizens  are  to  be  despoiled  of  their  property, 
without  compensation  or  consideration,  a  leg- 
islature can  be  relied  upon  to  perpetrate  the 
outrage. 

The  formula  for  this  particular  kind  of 
rascality  is  well  defined  and  simple.  The 
" Bosses"  of  both  parties,  the  lobbyists, 
street,  elevated  and  other  railroads,  telegraph 
companies  and  great  financial  corporations 
generally,  which  are  constructed  in  the  inter- 
ests of  their  officials,  upon  the  basis  of  addi- 
tion, division  and  silence,  join  forces.  There 
are  however  some  kinds  of  dishonest  work 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  willing  hands  of  the 
officers  who  manage  these  corporations,  which 
138 


OUK  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

only  can  be  accomplished  with  the  aid  of  the 
"  Bosses  "  .  A  legislator  is  to  be  corrupted,  a 
majority  of  its  members  are  to  be  purchased, 
or  a  municipal  government  is  to  give  its 
sanction  to  a  corporate  steal,  a  railroad  lobby 
and  the  "  Boss "  are  the  powers  to  bring 
success  to  each  enterprise  undertaken.  These 
twins  joined  together  by  bonds  of  knavery, 
are  the  powers  which  crush  all  opposition, 
and  rule  and  rob  as  never  was  robbed  before, 
one  of  the  most  powerful  nations  of  the  earth. 
From  the  best  testimony  attainable  we  are 
led  to  believe  that  the  first  comprehensive 
and  well  elaborated  attempt  to  corrupt  a  leg- 
islature in  this  country  was  made  in  Albany, 
New  York,  fifty  odd  years  ago.  Unless  we 
have  been  misinformed  it  was  in  the  interest 
of  a  street  surface  horse  railroad.  The  per- 
son who  headed  that  enterprise  was  the  pro- 
totype of  the  corrupt  horde  of  politicians  and 
lobbyists,  who  since  that  time  have  done  so 
much  to  disgrace  our  oft  alleged  free  govern- 
ment and  to  bring  the  Republican  form, 
generally,  into  almost  hopeless  disrepute. 
This  man  who  conceived  and  consummated 
this  first  deliberate  scheme  of  buying  a  law 
139 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

from  a  legislature,  in  the  interest  of  a  private 
corporation  had  a  long  and  eventful  career. 
It  is  quite  safe  to  assert  that  during  the 
latter  half  of  his  life  he  followed  with  unpre- 
cedented success,  the  occupation  of  a  political 
"  Boss  "  ,  and  no  one  in  our  time  had  ever 
more  completely  filled  that  unenviable  role. 
He  never  held  office  but  during  many  admin- 
istrations, state  and  national,  he  exercised  the 
powers  of  the  executive  in  giving  offices  to 
others.  At  one  time  his  notoriety  was 
national  and  his  power  almost  unlimited. 
He  succeeded  in  acquiring  an  enormous  repu- 
tation for  sagacity,  and  for  a  third  of  a  cen- 
tury no  dark  lantern  political  meeting  of  a 
peculiar  set  of  professional  politicians  in  the 
State  of  New  York  was  considered  complete 
without  him.  His  advice  in  all  matters  of 
caucus  intrigue,  corrupt  management  of  con- 
ventions, and  expertness  in  underhand  party 
manipulation  generally  was  invaluable.  His 
followers  could  be  counted  by  the  horde,  and 
they  came  to  his  conventions  from  every 
cross-roads  and  rotten  borough  in  his  State  ; 
and  obeyed  his  commands  as  the  famed 
cohorts  did  their  Roman  Commanders. 
140 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Take  him  for  all  and  all,  he  was  the  great- 
est and  most  powerful  "  Boss "  of  his  time 
whose  foul  eminence  is  a  part  of  the  politi- 
cal history  of  his  unfortunate  State,  and  he 
had  the  longest  reign  of  any  of  his  class. 
At  last  like  humble  mortals  he  came  to  the 
end  of  his  mortality  and  passed  to  that  un- 
known realm  where  there  will  be  no  happi- 
ness for  him  if  there  are  no  political  employ- 
ments. After  the  sad  taking  off,  all  the 
newspapers  in  the  great  metropolitan  City  of 
the  Western  Empire,  joined  in  lofty  and 
heroic  strains  of  eulogy  in  fulsome  praise  of 
this  corrupt  citizen  with  his  terribly  blotched 
reputation,  who  during  his  mortal  career  had 
achieved  the  bad  eminence  of  making  whole- 
sale legislative  corruption  successful  and 
fashionable ;  not  only  in  his  own  State,  but 
by  his  pernicious  example,  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  There  was 
not  a  single  journal  in  the  whole  country, 
that  dared  to  print  upon  its  pages  one  single 
truth  concerning  the  wrong  side  of  this  cor- 
ruption breeding  "  Boss "  who  had  thrived 
and  fattened  upon  the  proceeds  of  his  capac- 
ity to  debase  and  degrade  the  government 
tinder  which  he  was  born  and  bred. 
141 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Lord  Hertford,  who  died  in  1842,  was  one 
of  the  most  despicable  characters  that  ever 
lived  in  any  age  or  country.  When  the  Duke 
of  Bedford  heard  that  Peel's  carriage  had  fol- 
lowed his  remains,  he  wrote  the  following  to 
Charles  Greville: 

' '  I  see  that  Peel's  carriage  followed  Lord  Hert- 
ford's remains  out  of  London!  What  is  the  use  of 
character  and  conduct  in  this  world  if  after  such  a 
life,  death  and  will  as  Lord  Hertford's,  such  a  mark 
of  respect  is  paid  to  his  memory  by  the  first  minister 
of  this  great  country,  and  this  not  the  loose  and 
profligate  'Lord  Melbourne,'  but  the  good,  honest 
and  particular  Sir  Eobert  Peel?" 

Evidently  the  Duke  of  Bedford  did  not 
believe  that  death  could  atone  for  or  make 
respectable  a  crooked  life,  and  we  may  put  it 
down  as  a  safe  conclusion  that  death  ought 
not  to  reverse  a  notoriously  vicious  history 
which  a  bad  career  had  written  for  itself. 

This  condition  of  legislative  affairs  will 
continue  to  exist  and  grow  worse  until  the 
people  who  are  the  source  of  power,  can 
be  reached  and  convinced  of  the  absolute 
necessity  of  sending  mature,  able,  well- 
qualified  pure  men  to  represent  them  in  all 
143 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

legislative  bodies.  It  is  just  here  that  we 
have  made  our  gravest  mistake.  The  rule 
has  fairly  obtained  throughout  the  whole 
country,  that  anything  in  the  form  of  a  man 
is  good  enough  human  substance  out  of 
which  to  make  a  congressman,  a  member  of 
the  legislature  or  an  alderman.  Of  course 
there  are  exceptions  to  this  rule,  but  it  may 
be  safely  stated  that  any  incompetent  "  Boss  " 
or  demagogue,  with  a  large  enough  follow- 
ing of  political  serfs,  or  any  other  sort  of 
person,  who  is  willing  to  contribute  liberally 
for  party  purposes,  can  obtain  a  nomination 
for  any  legislative  body  within  the  gift  of  a 
large  majority  of  the  political  units,  con- 
tained within  our  territorial  boundaries. 

These  corrupt  and  incompetent  lawmak- 
ers are  the  sources  from  whence  flow  nearly 
all  the  ills  our  political  flesh  as  a  nation  is 
heir  to.  There  is  not  a  single  abuse  in  our 
system  of  government  which  could  not  be 
effectually  eradicated  by  wise  and  honest 
legislation.  Give  the  State  of  New  York 
for  instance,  five  years  of  a  majority  of  com- 
petent and  incorruptible  men  in  each  branch 
of  the  legislature,  and  they  would  pass  new 
143 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

laws  and  repeal  old  ones  which  would  reduce 
the  current  expenses  of  its  Cities  at  least  one- 
third  of  this  present  outlay,  and  instead  of 
impairing  the  public  service  would  make  it 
more  efficient.  But  so  long  as  nominations 
of  all  high  officials  are  dictated  by  the 
"  Bosses,"  who  live  by  corrupt  combinations, 
officeholding  and  creating  opportunities  to 
rob  the  tax-payer,  we  must  expect  the  pres- 
ent way  of  doing  our  governmental  business 
to  continue. 

Already  thoughtful  men  seeing  the  seem- 
ingly hopeless  condition  into  which  our  pub- 
lic affairs  have  fallen,  are  beginning  to  ask 
themselves  why  it  was  that  we  lost  400,000 
lives  and  spent  $5,000,000,000  of  money  to 
preserve  a  government  and  a  series  of  gov- 
ernments within  a  government,  which,  all 
combined,  are  incapable  of  protecting  the 
interests  of  its  citizens  against  onslaughts  of 
organized  rascality  and  robbery.  Many 
among  our  most  patriotic  Americans  are 
now  asking  themselves  this  question  and 
others  germane  to  it.  May  not  these  thoughts 
have  had  something  to  do  with  the  actions 
of  that  army  of  Republicans,  who  in  the 
144 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

autumn  of  1884  stepped  out  of  their  party 
ranks  and  voted  for  the  candidate  they  be- 
lieved to  be  an  honest  man  ?  In  that  move- 
ment, whether  erroneous  or  not,  we  see  the 
first  organized  serious  attempt  at  political 
purification,  and  the  result, — the  breaking 
up  of  an  old  partisan  line  in  the  interests  of 
better  government.  All  honor  to  the  men 
who  had  the  courage  of  their  convictions; 
who  dared  to  do  what  they  believed  to  be 
right  in  spite  of  party  commands.  They 
placed  upon  the  colors  at  the  masthead  of 
their  political  ship  a  motto  worth  remem- 
bering:—"The  Right  before  Party." 

The  civil  service  reform  has  accomplished 
something  in  the  way  of  getting  better 
employees  into  the  public  service ;  but  it  is 
like  clipping  the  end  of  the  topmost  leafy 
point  of  an  Upas  tree  with  the  vain  hope  of 
neutralizing  the  poison  in  the  body.  After 
all  the  clipping,  the  roots  remain  as  much 
alive  and  as  potent  to  mischief  as  ever ;  and 
so  it  will  continue  with  us  unless  we  can 
convince  our  whole  people  of  the  absolute 
and  positive  necessity,  and  it  is  greater  under 
our  form  of  government  than  any  other,  of 
145 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

selecting  the  best  men,  morally  and  intellect- 
ually in  their  respective  communities,  to  repre- 
sent them  in  the  legislative  bodies  which  make 
their  laws. 

This  accomplished  our  nation  will  have  a 
new  lease  of  life.  Without  it,  it  is  quite  im- 
possible to  foretell  the  disasters  the  future  may 
have  in  store  for  us.  Now,  because  of  our 
enormous  resources,  unceasing  mental  and 
physical  activity,  all  tending  in  the  direc- 
tion of  bringing  together  an  almost  unprece- 
dented amount  of  wealth,  we  are  able  to  stand 
the  constantly  increasing  drains  which  unwise 
and  corrupt  legislation  imposes  upon  the  pro- 
ductive forces  of  the  nation.  But  wait  until 
our  population  becomes  as  dense  and  we  have, 
to  the  superficial  area  of  our  territory,  as 
many  mouths  to  feed  as  they  have  in  any  of 
the  old  countries  of  Europe.  What  will  be 
the  result  then  ?  Possibly  a  daily  revolt  in 
one  part  of  the  country  or  another  ending  in 
a  general  revolution  and  overturning  of  the 
whole  government,  and  finally,  a  dissolution. 

Legislative  bodies  are  the  all  important 
and  most  essential  of  all  the  machinery  of 
our  modern  political  organizations.  They 

146 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

were  called  into  existence  for  the  convenience 
of  nations  ruled  by  constitutional  forms  of 
government  to  make  salutary  laws  in  the 
general  interests  of  all  conditions  and  classes 
of  the  governed.  It  is  clearly  the  bounden 
and  moral  duty  of  these  bodies  to  enforce,  by 
their  acts,  economy  in  the  administration  of 
all  matters  relating  to  government,  and  also, 
to  provide  methods  for  a  rigid  and  impartial 
enforcement  of  laws  and  the  administration 
of  justice. 

A  legislative  body,  morally,  has  no  inher- 
ent power  nor  can  it  acquire  any,  to  commit 
or  authorize  a  wrong  against  the  public  wel- 
fare and  interests  of  the  governed ;  and  it 
ought  to  be  within  the  province  of  the 
Courts  and  their  clearly  defined  duty,  when- 
ever public  interest  requires  it,  to  interpose 
their  power  to  prevent  the  consummation  of 
a  wrong  enacted  by  or  permitted  by  a  legis- 
lative body.  Under  this  proposition  lies  the 
question  of  judicial  notice,  or  how  far  the 
Courts,  can,  of  their  own  volition,  go  in  the 
way  of  assuming  jurisdiction,  upon  proper 
presentation  of  facts,  in  matters  where  public 
property  rights  are  involved,  and  where  under 

147 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

the  color  of  a  legislative  act  a  great  wrong  in 
the  interest  of  individuals  or  private  corpora- 
tions is  being  perpetrated.  May  it  not  be 
said  of  Courts  as  of  individuals,  who  seeing 
a  crime  about  to  be  perpetrated  are  bound 
to  use  all  the  power  at  their  command  to 
prevent  it ;  and  further,  if  from  the  stand- 
point of  morals,  public  policy  and  sound  poli- 
tical ethics,  a  legislative  body  has  passed  an 
act  which  violates  all  or  either  of  these  great 
principles,  in  impairing  and  setting  at  naught 
private  or  public  rights,  ought  not  action 
under  such  an  act  to  be  prevented  upon  the 
theory  of  equity  :  that  that  which  we  have  no 
right  to  do  we  ought  to  be  restrained  from 
doing  ? 

An  incident,  (one  of  many  of  the  same 
kind)  in  our  history,  will  sufficiently  serve 
the  purpose  for  an  explanation  of  this  pro- 
position. It  is  a  notorious  and  scandalous 
fact  that  a  certain  dishonest  person  procured 
by  corrupt  methods — payments  of  large  sums 
of  money  to  members  of  the  legislature  of 
the  State  of  New  York — the  passage  of  a  law 
which  enabled  him  and  his  adherents  to  apply 
to  the  Board  of  Aldermen  of  the  City  of 
148 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

New  York  for  the  right  to  lay  a  railroad 
track  in  Broadway,  which  application  was 
granted,  as  it  was  believed  by  reason  of  cer- 
tain other  large  payments  of  money  to  the 
members  of  that  body  for  their  votes.  A 
deceptive  action  was  commenced,  really  in 
the  interest  of  the  parties  who  were  perpetra- 
ting this  fraud,  but prima  facie  or  seemingly, 
to  secure  the  property  rights  of  the  people 
and  to  prevent  the  consummation  of  a  wrong- 
ful taking  without  adequate  compensation, 
and  an  application  was  made  to  the  Supreme 
Court  for  a  perpetual  injunction  to  prevent 
the  building  of  the  road.  This  being  a  pub- 
lic matter  of  vital  importance,  it  was  the  duty 
of  that  Court  to  have  taken  judicial  notice 
of  all  the  facts  involved  in  that  self  evident 
rascality.  One  of  the  Justices  of  that  Court, 
when  the  case  came  before  the  General  Term 
on  appeal,  took  the  right  view  of  the  wonder- 
ful piece  of  chicanery  and  wrote  a  dissenting 
opinion  in  favor  of  partially  protecting  the 
great  public  interests  at  stake.  He  was 
overruled  by  the  two  other  Justices  sitting 
with  him  and  one  of  the  most  stupendous 
swindles  of  our  later  times  was  earned  to  a 
complete  success. 

149 


OUK  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Our  last  forty  or  fifty  years  of  legislative 
history  proves  most  conclusively  that  we 
have  nothing  to  hope  for  in  the  way  of  decent 
government  from  the  representatives  chosen 
by  the  "  Bosses  "  and  elected  by  the  sover- 
eign people.  Year  by  year  our  voting  popu- 
lation is  becoming  more  vicious,  and  the 
elective  candidates  for  office  more  and  more 
unfit  for  the  positions  they  are  nominated  to 
occupy ;  and  there  is  no  hope  for  the  protec- 
tion of  private  and  public  rights,  save  through 
the  courage  and  honesty  of  the  Courts ;  and, 
if  they  fail,  and  in  many  instances  they  do, 
what  course  we  may  ask  is  left  ?  We  must 
leave  to  others  of  the  future  the  answering 
of  this  important  question,  but  the  present 
may  suggest  to  the  future  that  in  other  coun- 
tries this  condition  of  affairs  would  bring  a 
revolution,  or  in  other  words,  a  revolt  against 
corrupt  and  oppressive  rulers. 

Members  of  State  legislatures  as  well  as 
members  of  boards  of  aldermen  are  usually 
nominated  by  u Bosses"  for  the  purpose  of 
creating  opportunities  for  robbery  and  job- 
bery and  not  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  in 
the  honest  administration  of  a  government. 
150 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

A  long  and  continuous  reign  of  "Bosses" 
has  brought  about  an  accumulation  of  abuses 
which  have  taken  such  deep  root  in  our 
political  soil,  that  it  is  doubtful  if  they  can 
ever  be  removed  by  any  means  less  violent 
than  a  resort  to  physical  force. 

The  influence  of  "Bossism"  upon  our 
national  political  morals  has  been  no  less 
disastrous  and  degrading  than  upon  those  of 
localities.  Its  rule  has  been  so  extended  as 
to  cover  nearly  eveiy  part  of  our  country, 
and  veiy  few,  if  any,  of  the  political  units 
within  its  boundaries  are  entirely  free  from 
the  rule  of  the  local  "  Bosses."  With  the 
aid  of  their  influence,  incompetent  and  thor- 
oughly corrupt  men  have  forced  their  way 
into  the  halls  of  State  legislatures  and  pur- 
chased seats  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States.  In  many  instances  these  purchases 
have  been  made  out  of  their  own  means, 
while  others  have  had  their  seats  paid  for  by 
land-grabbing  railroad  corporations,  and  often 
by  cabals  of  individuals — the  criminal  rich, 
engaged  in  swindling  the  government. 

During  the  administrations  of  General 
Grant  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  was 
151 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

first  of  all  an  exchange  organized  apparently 
for  the  purpose  of  swapping  favors  in  the 
way  of  appointments  to  office  with  the  Ex- 
ecutive. To  such  an  extent  had  this  condi- 
tion of  affairs  obtained,  that  during  the 
short  administration  of  General  Garfield  a 
notable  and  influential  Senator  resigned  his 
seat  in  the  United  States  Senate  because  the 
Executive  had  presumed  to  interfere  in  his 
patronage  rights  by  making  an  appointment 
without  his  permission,  of  a  person  to  fill  an 
important  office  within  the  senatorial  terri- 
tory of  the  offended  Senator. 

Early  in  General  Grant's  first  term,  Gene- 
ral Longstreet  visited  him  to  renew  the  old 
friendship  contracted  in  the  army.  At  the 
end  of  a  long  interview  the  President  asked 
Longstreet  what  he  could  do  for  him.  The 
other  ^seeing  the  point  involved  in  the  ques- 
tion, said :  "If  you  were  to  give  me  an  ap- 
pointment the  Senate  would  not  confirm  it 
for  a  rebel."  The  President  answered  :  "  I'll 
take  care  of  that;  they  want  more  favors  of 
me  than  I  do  of  them."  The  sequel  proved 
how  well  the  President  knew  his  men ;  for 
Longstreet  was  nominated  for  the  position  of 
152 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

naval  officer  at  the  port  of  New  Orleans,  an 
office  of  emoluments, — and  by  a  largely  Re- 
publican senate  confirmed  without  protest  or 
question.  This  simple  statement  which  came 
out  through  an  interview  with  Longstreet 
since  the  death  of  General  Grant,  confirms 
conclusively  one  phase  of  the  relations  which 
have  come  to  exist  between  the  Senate  and 
the  Executive. 

Thus  we  see  one  of  the  two  conserva- 
tive essentials  in  our  government — a  body 
intended  by  the  framers  of  the  Constitution 
to  act  when  necessary  as  a  check  upon  the 
Executive, — instead  of  performing  its  in- 
tended duties,  entering  into  an  unwritten 
compact  with  that  official  to  confirm  improper 
appointments,  in  the  interests  of  each  other, 
of  all  sorts  of  unfit  and  unworthy  persons, 
who  in  thousands  of  instances  possessed  not 
a  single  qualification  necessary  for  the  honest 
performance  of  the  duties  of  the  offices  to 
which  they  were  appointed. 

President  Lincoln's  first  Secretary  of  War 
was  Simon  Cameron  of  Pennsylvania.  He 
had  only  served  a  short  time  when  the  mag- 
nitude of  his  corrupt  practices,  in  the  inter- 
153 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION. 

ests  of  private  greed,  and  against  the  interests 
of  his  government  became  so  great  that  con- 
cealment was  impossible.  The  President 
forced  him  out  of  the  Cabinet  and,  later  on, 
the  House  of  Representatives  in  an  isolated  fit 
of  patriotic  indignation  passed  a  resolution  of 
censure  upon  him.  There  was  at  the  time  no 
doubt  whatever  about  the  propriety  and  ne- 
cessity of  the  action  of  Congress  and  the  act 
of  expulsion  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 
This  resolution  remained  upon  the  records  of 
the  national  legislature  until  it  became  neces- 
sary to  punish  Senator  Sumner  for  having 
made  an  unanswerable  assault  upon  "  Kingly 
prerogatives  " — one  of  the  greatest  of  his  later 
senatorial  speeches,  which  defeated  a  scheme 
in  the  interest  of  a  mixed  set  of  New  York 
schemers  for  the  spoliation  of  the  Island  of 
St.  Domingo.  This  offence  was  not  to  be  for- 
given and  the  White  House  with  other  influ- 
ences was  set  to  work  to  white- wash  Cam- 
eron who  was  then  a  senator  and  a  very  near 
friend  of  the  President ;  and  so  potent  were 
the  various  powers  invoked,  that  Congress 
was  induced  to  rescind  the  resolution  of  cen- 
sure, and  by  so  doing  gave  a  Congressional 
154 


OUB,  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

varnish  of  respectability,  of  doubtful  value 
at  best,  to  one  of  the  most  venal  and  power- 
ful political  "  Bosses  "  of  his  time,  who  had 
knowingly  and  persistently  disgraced  a  high 
official  position  in  the  way  of  wantonly 
plundering  his  people  in  the  days  of  their 
greatest  distress  and  peril.  This  was  only  a 
preliminary  to  a  blow  which  was  to  fall 
upon  the  head  of  Mr.  Sumner;  for  soon 
after  he  was  deposed  from  the  chairmanship 
of  the  Senate  committee  on  foreign  relations, 
— a  position  he  had  adorned  for  many  years, 
the  ex-secretary  of  war,  disgraced  by  Con- 
gressional censure  and  ejected  from  a  high 
official  position  by  the  President  of  the  Uni- 
ted States,  was  put  in  his  place.  By  this 
act  who  was  degraded  and  disgraced? 
Surely  not,  as  intended,  Mr.  Sumner. 

A  late  official  in  the  land  office,  of  un- 
doubted veracity,  who  had  ample  opportun- 
ity for  obtaining  information,  has  stated  that 
by  dishonest  methods,  individuals  in  favor 
with  several  of  the  past  administrations,  as 
well  as  corporations,  have  in  many  instances 
without  adequate  consideration  obtained 
possession  of  and  titles  to  large  tracts  of 
155 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

public  lands,  some  of  which  are  larger  than 
several  of  the  Grand  Duchies  of  Europe.  A 
later  land  commissioner  in  his  first  report  to 
the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  says,  that  in 
his  office,  seemingly,  a  rule  had  obtained  to 
grant  all  patents  applied  for  where  no  oppo^ 
sition  was  presented.  The  results  of  these 
frauds  have  a  future  value  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  estimate. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  series  of  frauds  ever 
perpetrated  upon  a  people  by  an  unfaith- 
ful set  of  representatives, — lawmakers — are 
those  acts  passed  by  Congress  which  are 
known  as  the  supplementary  pension  laws. 
Each  was  the  offspring  of  a  single  parent,  a 
demagogue  who  had  hoped  that  gratitude 
for  these  unearned  favors  would  carry  him 
into  the  White  House  astride  the  backs  of 
the  veteran  soldiers.  In  June,  1890,  another 
still  more  reprehensible  than  all  of  its  pre- 
decessors became  a  law  with  a  like  object  in 
view.  These  measures  went  through  both 
houses  of  Congress  without  opposition;  the 
demagogues  of  both  parties  voting  for  them 
because  they  feared  the  influence  of  the  old 
soldier  vote  upon  their  home  political  Juiter- 
ests,  each  in  his  particular  district. 
156 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

It  is  estimated  by  authority  that  the  possi- 
ble payments  under  the  provisions  of  these 
unprecedented  acts  will  amount  to  not  less 
than  five  billions  of  dollars,  and  may  possi- 
bly mount  up  to  a  much  larger  sum. 

It  would  be  some  consolation  to  the  pro- 
ducing classes  of  the  country  to  know  that 
these  enormous  bounties  were  going  to  those 
who  may  have  deserved  them.  A  large  ma- 
jority of  the  most  deserving  soldiers  have 
passed  away,  and  of  those  left  a  major  por- 
tion are  short  term,  large  bounty  men  and 
bounty  jumpers,  who  in  many  instances  are 
not  entitled  to  anything,  even  the  old  pen- 
sion of  eight  dollars  per  month.  It  is  quite 
safe  to  assert  that  the  unworthies,  many 
thousands  of  very  questionable  widows,  and 
pension  agents  get  at  least  one-half  of  the 
total  payments  made  under  the  provisions  of 
these  reprehensible  supplementary  laws. 

Senator  Logan  was  once  asked  by  General 
Sheridan  why  he  was  so  strongly  in  favor  of 
these  measures.  He  answered  that  "  it  is  a 
d— d  good  way  to  distribute  the  surplus," 
and  he  might  have  added,  "  and  to  make 
Logan  president."  To  tax-payers  this  may 
157 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

seem  the  best  argument  ever  openly  made  in 
their  favor. 

Incidents  germane  to  these  might  be  cited 
by  the  hundreds,  but  these  two  or  three  are 
sufficient  to  give  a  glimpse  of  the  political 
atmosphere  which  has  pervaded  Washington 
for  a  considerable  period.  The  culmination 
of  our  political  immorality  seemed  nearly 
complete  with  Belknap,  Robeson,  Delano 
and  Ackerman  in  the  Cabinet  of  the  Presi- 
dent, and  Tweed  and  his  great  horde  of 
brutal  Irish  rascals  in  full  possession  of  the 
largest  and  richest  city  of  a  country,  whose 
people  upon  all  occasions,  in  season  and  out 
of  season,  boast  of  its  magnitude,  its  wealth, 
and  its  superior  civilization.  It  would  be 
well  to  boast  a  little  less  and  purify  more. 
Granting  these  statements  are  true  are  there 
any  remedies  ?  Without  doubt  approximate 
cures  are  at  hand,  but  we  as  a  people  have 
not  the  courage  nor  our  "  Bosses  "  the  disposi- 
tion or  honesty  to  adopt  them.  And  what 
are  they  ?  First :  Repeal  the  present  natural- 
ization law  which  is  inadequate  and  farcical 
in  its  operation,  and  enact  in  its  stead  a  law 
similar  to  the  one  of  England.  By  doing 
158 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

this  we  would  get  rid  of  our  most  vicious 
and  ignorant  class  of  voters,  who  are  now 
the  chief  factors  in  the  successful  schemes  of 
the  "  Bosses".  Second :  Have  either  a  prop- 
erty or  educational  qualification — one  or  both 
— for  regulating  the  right  of  manhood  suf- 
frage. This  would  materially  assist  in  con- 
fining the  voting  powers  to  classes  the  least 
likely  to  sell  their  votes.  Third :  Make  it 
an  offence  punishable  with  imprisonment,  for 
a  long  term,  to  purchase  or  sell  a  legislative 
vote,  and  apply  the  same  penalty  to  those 
who  buy  and  sell  votes  at  the  polls. 

Corrupting  a  voter  at  the  polls  or  in  a  leg- 
islative body  ought  to  be  made  an  unpardon- 
able crime.  It  is  much  worse  than  the  tak- 
ing of  human  life  which  only  affects  those 
whose  lives  are  destroyed  and  those  connected 
with  them,  while  the  other  offence  may,  in  a 
measure,  and  often  does,  affect  the  welfare 
of  a  nation,  and  any  government  would  be 
justified  in  going  back  to  the  days  of  Tor- 
quemada  to  find  a  punishment  equal  to  its 
enormity. 

No  one  can  doubt  the  patriotism,  unselfish- 
ness and  intelligence  of  the  body  of  men  that 
159 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

founded  this  government,  who  are  now  des- 
ignated as  the  "  Fathers  of  the  Constitution  "  . 
They  intended  to  establish  an  economical 
government,  without  either  king  or  bishop, 
upon  sound  principles  of  equality  of  all  before 
the  law  and  impartial  administration  of  jus- 
tice. Life  and  property  were  to  be  abso- 
lutely protected  at  a  minimum  cost.  In 
short  the  yoke  of  authority  was  to  set  less 
heavily  upon  the  necks  of  the  governed  than 
under  any  other  form  of  government.  These 
intentions  were  undoubtedly  right  and  in 
the  interests  of  humanity,  but  the  way  of 
moulding  them  into  a  permanent  political 
form  defective.  Then  as  now  there  was 
fleeting  through  the  air  the  trite  maxim  of 
"  Vox  populi  vox  Dei  " ,  and  unfortunately, 
the  "  Fathers "  accepted  it  as  the  corner- 
stone for  their  political  superstructure. 
Another  mistake  not  quite  as  serious,  was 
the  opening  wide  of  the  American  gates  to  the 
ignorant,  vicious  and  pauper  population  of 
all  the  rest  of  the  world.  Taking  advantage 
of  these  errors  those  classes  have  rushed  in 
upon  us,  from  the  old  world,  until  they  have 
clogged  our  political  stomach  beyond  its 
160 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

powers  of  digestion,  and  have  caused  our  gov- 
ernment to  become  one  of  the  most  cor- 
rupt, vicious  and  expensive  known  to  his- 
tory, and  the  general  result  of  a  century  and 
a  quarter  of  experiment  may  be  summed  up 
in  these  words. 

The  boiling  of  our  political  pot  usually 
brings  the  scum  to  the  top.  This  happens 
in  other  countries  and  under  other  political 
systems,  but  in  those  foreign  instances  it  some- 
times floats  off,  while  with  us  it  remains  and 
becomes  the  dominant  power  which  controls 
and  directs ;  and  we  present  to  the  world  the 
political  spectacle  of  vice  ruling  virtue,  pov- 
erty dictating  to  wealth  and  ignorance  tri- 
umphing over  intelligence.  In  short  our 
government  may  be  designated  as  one  which 
permits  the  bottom  to  rise  to  the  top  and  rule 
all  the  rest.  We  all  know  that  a  great  num- 
ber of  Americans  are  in  the  habit  of  boasting 
about  the  success  of  our  political  experiment 
and  attribute  the  great  material  prosper- 
ity of  our  country  to  its  form  of  govern- 
ment. The  concise  answer  to  these  inconsid- 
erate expressions  is,  that  the  form  of  govern- 
ment has  had  very  little  to  do  with  the 
161 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

material  prosperity  of  our  people,  but  owing 
to  the  enprmous  natural  resources  of  our  vir- 
gin continent,  we  have  prospered  in  spite  of 
ourselves,  and  notwithstanding  the  defects  of 
our  political  system.  To  such  boasters  we 
would  say,  wait  until  we  have  as  dense  a 
population  to  the  superficial  area  as  is  now 
to  be  found  in  some  of  the  old  countries  of 
Europe,  and  then  if  facts  will  bear  them  out, 
let  them  boast  of  the  superiority  of  our  gov- 
ernment. In  such  an  emergency,  which  in 
the  history  of  a  nation  is  sure  to  come,  our 
defective  and  carelessly  thrown  together  pol- 
itical structure  would  be  about  as  potent  in 
its  strength  to  secure,  and  capacity  to  defend, 
as  a  rope  of  sand. 

The  "  Boss "  is  the  evil  genius  of  our 
Republic,  whose  influence  is  over  all  and  the 
foul  atmosphere  he  has  engendered  pervades 
every  department  of  our  administration.  The 
veritable  old  man  of  the  sea  who  is  crushing 
us  down  by  compelling  the  nation  to  carry 
the  weight  of  his  crimes — the  carrion  bird  of 
ill  omen  whose  breath  or  touch  defiles  all  the 
sources  of  sovereign  power  —  he  is  the  usual 
direct  or  indirect  tool  used  for  corrupting 
162 


OUR,  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

legislative  bodies — the  tempter  of  public  ser- 
vants in  official  life  and  often  a  blighting 
shadow  darkening  the  reputation  of  the  judi- 
cial bench.  In  short  he  is  the  incarnation  of 
all  the  villanies  known  to  our  politics.  Get 
rid  of  him  we  must,  or  in  time  he  will  make 
our  political  institutions  so  perfectly  repulsive 
and  worthless  as  a  form  of  government,  that 
all  decent  people  will  feel  like  seeking  a 
change  for  a  purer  political  atmosphere. 


163 


BEUTALITY    AND    AVARICE    TRI- 
UMPHANT.* 

BY    GENEKAL   BUSH   C.    HAWKINS. 

WOULD  it  be  unpatriotic  or  in  ill  adjust- 
ment with  current  facts  to  suggest  that  the 
motto  in  our  national  coat-of-arms  should  be 
\removed,  and  in  its  place  inserted,  "  Plun- 
\dering  Made  Easy  "  ?  Our  contribution  to 
the  world's  history  for  the  last  thirty  years 
would,  I  think,  sustain  the  recommendation 
for  such  a  change.  From  the  beginning  of 
the  Rebellion  to  the  present  time  insatiable 
greed,  practically  uncontrolled  by  law  or  by 
any  decent  show  of  regard  for  morality  or 
rights  of  property,  has  swept  over  our  land, 
a  mighty,  invisible  power  for  evil.  The  self- 


*  This  article  with  Colonel  Ingersoll's  reply  appeared  in 
the  North  American  Review  of  June,  1891.  The  rejoinder 
following,  which  is  now  printed  for  the  first  time,  was 
accepted  by  the  editor  for  publication.  Upon  reflection,  he 
suggested  changes  I  could  not  permit  to  be  made  and  it  was 
withdrawn.  It  contains  repetitions  of  some  facts  which  ex- 
ist in  other  papers  and  are  used  again  as  necessary  items, 
in  the  answer  to  some  of  Colonel  Ingersoirs  statements, 
164 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

respect  of  the  community  lias  been  impaired 
or  destroyed,  and  we  nave  permitted  the 
unscrupulous  classes  to  give  us  the  reputa- 
tion throughout  the  civilized  world  of  a 
nation  of  political  tricksters  and  business 
sharpers. 

Let  us  glance  at  some  of  the  darker  chap- 
ters of  our  recent  record.  In  1861  an  army 
of  dishonest  contractors  selected  a  struggling 
people  for  their  victims.  Their  frauds  were 
notorious  and  enormous,  amounting  to  scores 
of  millions.  Few  among  them  were  arrested 
and  none  were  punished. 

As  examples  of  the  frauds  perpetrated 
upon  the  army  during  the  Rebellion,  I  will 
give  an  account  of  two  which  came  within 
my  own  experience. 

In  the  autumn  of  1861  I  received  on  the 
same  day,  at  Hatteras  Inlet,  two  invoices. 
One  was  for  army  shoes ;  for  soles  many  had 
shavings-fillings  concealed  beneath  a  thin 
cover  of  the  poorest  quality  of  sole-leather. 
They  were  worthless — unequal  to  a  single 
day's  wear.  The  other  invoice  was  for  two 
hundred  rifle-muskets  :  they  were  from  a  lot 
that  had  been  condemned  by  a  foreign  gov- 
165 


OUK  POLITICAL  DEGKADATION 

ernment  as  being  unfit  for  service.  It  was 
rumored  at  the  time  that  their  purchase  was 
effected  through  the  agency  of  a  rather  high 
government  official.  Only  sixty  of  theso 
pieces  were  issued  for  use,  and  thirteen  of 
these  were  disabled  at  the  first  discharge. 
My  representations  to  the  proper  government 
officials,  describing  fully  the  nature  of  these 
swindles,  produced  no  effect  whatever; 
neither  exposure,  arrest,  nor  punishment  fol- 
lowed. The  probabilites  are  that  individuals 
having  political  influence  were  engaged  in 
each. 

Possibly  the  most  successful  of  all  the 
swindles  upon  the  people  during  the  Civil 
War  was  the  selling  and  chartering  of  worn- 
out  vessels  to  the  Government.  For  the  pur- 
pose of  this  paper  it  is  only  necessary  to  de- 
scribe one  transaction.  In  the  winter  of 
1865  the  government  was  asked  to  purchase 
two  old  hulks  for  use  in  the  quartermaster's 
department.  A  commission  of  honest  ex- 
perts, consisting  of  a  seaman,  a  shipbuilder, 
and  a  constructing  engineer,  was  appointed. 
But  such  a  commission  was  not  wanted  by 
the  owner;  and  before  it  had  time  to  inspect 
166 


OUE  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

and  report  upon  values  he  induced  the  gov- 
ernment to  appoint  another,  which  in  due 
time  reported  the  hulks  to  be  worth  $650,- 
000 ;  and  the  Quartermaster-General,  by  very 
high  authority,  was  ordered  to  purchase  them 
at  that  valuation.  The  payment  was  made 
when  the  Rebellion  was  near  its  end,  when 
the  government  had  many  vessels  for  sale 
and  little  need  for  water  transportation. 
Within  four  months  after  the  purchase  the 
two  hulks  were  offered  at  public  auction  for 
sale,  and  $35,000  was  the  best  bid  received. 
This  swindle  was  opposed  with  great  energy 
and  warmth  by  the  then  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  the  Quartermaster- General,  and 
the  Third  Auditor,  but  all  to  no  purpose. 
The  superior  power  invoked  by  the  owner 
and  his  influential  friends  gave  an  absolute 
order  to  purchase,  which  could  not  be  dis- 
obeyed. 

The  foregoing  are  only  typical  examples, 
and  by  no  means  represent  the  variety  of 
gigantic  frauds  perpetrated  by  knaves  upon  a 
confiding  and  patriotic  people  whose  sons  were 
pouring  out  their  life's  blood  for  the  preser- 
vation of  their  country.  I  have  always  be- 
167 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

lieved  that,  owing  to  swindling  contracts  and 
incompetent  and  dishonest  officials,  the  ex- 
pense of  putting  down  the  Rebellion  was 
fully  one-third  more  than  it  ought  to  have 
been.  To  deliberately  defraud  a  grief- 
stricken  people  engaged  in  such  a  struggle  as 
we  had  in  hand  from  1861  to  1865,  involv- 
ing, as  it  did,  such  an  unprecedented  loss  of 
life,  was  one  of  the  greatest  offences  which 
could  be  committed,  and  a  person  engaged 
and  assisting  in  its  commission  reached,  in 
my  belief,  the  lowest  depths  of  human  de- 
pravity known  to  the  calendar  of  criminal 
practices. 

Next  in  the  great  series  of  schemes  for 
plunder  came  the  land-grant  acts,  bribed 
through  Congress,  and  resulting  in  the  gift 
to  corrupt  private  corporations,  having  no 
claim  upon  the  nation,  of  valuable  public 
lands  which  amount,  in  the  aggregate,  to  a 
territory  larger  than  the  whole  of  France. 
These  lands  were  voted  away  in  direct  viola- 
tion of  moral  right  and  an  enlightened  pub- 
lic policy,  and  the  magnitude  of  these  gifts 
is  without  precedent  in  the  history  of  legis- 
lation. Only  one  of  the  railroads  assisted 
168 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

was  a  national  necessity,  and  that  ought  to 
have  been  built,  owned,  and  managed  by  the 
government.  All  the  other  lines  were  con- 
structed far  in  advance  of  the  demand,  and 
the  profits  of  their  construction  have  gone 
into  the  pockets  of  the  rascals  who  promoted 
these  schemes  and  carried  them  to  successful 
con  summation. 

Our  accommodating  lawmakers  supple- 
mented their  enormous  land  donation  to  the 
Pacific  railroads  with  loans  of  government 
bonds  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  sixty- 
five  millions  of  dollars.  The  voting-away  of 
public  domain  was  bad  enough,  but  the 
granting  of  those  loans,  pledging  the  credit 
of  the  whole  people  for  their  payment,  for 
the  use  of  business  corporations,  or,  rather, 
as  it  turned  out,  for  the  benefit  of  a  little 
cabal  of  promoters,  was  infinitely  worse  and 
possibly  more  corrupt. 

Railroad  wrecking  is  another  favorite 
American  industry,  which  has  enriched  a  set 
of  individuals  whose  presence  would  adorn 
penal  instutions.  Their  formula  is  very 
simple :  Obtain  voting  power  from  enough 
stock  to  secure  control  of  any  railroad,  the 
169 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

most  or  the  least  successful — it  matters  not 
which ;  create  a  floating  debt,  decrease  earn- 
ings, depreciate  the  value  of  property,  cease 
paying  interest,  have  a  receiver  appointed, 
foreclose  and  sell  the  whole  franchise  to  ring 
purchasers,  who  reorganize  in  their  own  in- 
terests by  creating  a  new  bonded  debt  and 
issuing  large  amounts  of  stock.  The  bonds 
from  the  time  of  their  issue  pay  interest,  and 
dividends  upon  stock  are  sometimes  paid 
within  the  first  year  after  reorganization. 
This  scheme  usually  deprives  small  holders 
of  a  material  portion  of  their  income,  and, 
in  its  results  generally,  is  among  the  most 
cruel  of  our  peculiar  rascalities.  The  rail- 
road receiver  is  an  American  specialty,  in- 
vented for  a  specific  purpose,  and  unknown 
to  any  European  country. 

For  many  years  land-stealing  from  the  gov- 
ernment has  been  among  the  popular  and 
profitable  occupations  of  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  our  citizens.  This  particular  specialty 
in  dishonesty  is  not  confined  to  class  or  con- 
dition. Rich  and  poor  alike  are  adepts,  and 
many  of  the  representative  men  of  exceptional 
influence  in  the  West  are  now  enjoying  an 
170 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

edifying  Christian  repose  based  on  the  pro- 
ceeds of  their  unlawful  takings  of  the  public 
domain. 

Not  many  years  ago  the  well-known  "  star- 
route  thieves  "  were  found  out.  If  I  remem- 
ber correctly,  about  six  millions  was  the 
amount  involved  in  their  special  operations ; 
the  rascals  were  indicted  and  tried  in  Wash- 
ington, and  of  course  acquitted.  One  among 
their  number  was  well  known  among  the 
Republican  faithful  as  being  an  adept  in 
practical  politics,  who  during  a  certain  Pre- 
sidential campaign  had  assisted  in  disbursing 
a  very  large  sum  of  money  among  the  corrupt 
voters  of  the  Western  States.  For  this  and 
other  political  services  a  great  dinner  was 
given  to  him,  at  which  the  Vice-President- 
elect of  the  United  States  presided.  This 
case  must  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  results 
of  our  "  superior  civilization."  It  has  been 
often  stated,  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  not  con- 
tradicted, that  those  "  star  route "  adepts 
were  very  successful  in  the  practice  of  the 
arts  which  lead  to  the  transferring  of  govern- 
ment lands  to  themselves,  the  transfers 
usually  being  made  without  apparent  con- 
sideration passing  to  the  grantor. 
171 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Another  great  and  favorite  industry  is 
stealing  standing  timber  from  public  lands. 
This  is  an  abuse  of  fifty  years'  duration,  and 
to-day  wherever  there  are  trees  belonging  to 
the  people  there  can  be  found  the  timber- 
thief  with  axe  in  hand.  During  a  certain 
administration  of  our  navy  a  timber  ring  hav- 
ing head-quarters  in  the  State  of  Massachu- 
setts carried  on  an  enormous  business  in 
stealing  timber  from  government  lands  in 
Florida,  and  selling  it  to  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment for  building  wooden  ships  when  there 
were  none  to  be  built ;  iron  having  then 
entirely  superseded  wood  as  a  material  for 
government  ship-building. 

The  next  item  to  appear  in  our  list  of  pecu- 
liar national  industries  is  that  which  has 
come  to  be  known  as  "stock- watering."  I 
have  forgotten  when  the  first  great  success  in 
this  particularly  American  specialty  occurred, 
but  I  believe  that  New  York,  in  respect  to 
this  new  fraud,  sustained,  as  usual,  its  bad 
eminence.  In  December,  1868,  the  directors 
of  a  certain  great  railway  company  passed,  in 
substance,  a  resolution  doubling  the  stock  of 
their  corporation.  This  act  was  in  direct 
172 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

violation  both  of  the  corporate  charter  and 
of  the  general  railroad  law  of  the  State,  and 
in  January,  1869,  a  powerful  corps  of  rail- 
road lobbyists  was  employed  by  the  officials 
of  that  corporation  to  push  through  a  corrupt 
Legislature  the  needed  legislation  to  give  life 
to  a  deliberate  violation  of  the  laws  of  the 
State. 

From  the  date  of  this  first  colossal  offence 
against  public  policy  and  honest  commerce, 
the  abuse  of  stock-watering  has  assumed 
gigantic  proportions.  According  to  the  last 
"  Poor's  Manual,"  we  had  in  operation  on 
December  31,  1890,  161,396.64  miles  of 
ordinary  steam  surface  railroads,  which  cost, 
on  paper,  $9,931,453,146.  These  are  very 
startling  figures,  and  it  is  perfectly  safe  to 
assert  that  two-fifths  of  that  amount,  viz., 
$2,972,581,258,  represents  "water."  The 
street  railroads  of  the  country,  horse,  cable, 
and  electric,  could  not  have  cost,  including 
equipment,  over  $110,000  per  mile,  but  they 
are  stocked  and  bonded  up  to  about  $400,- 
000 ;  and  the  elevated  roads  in  New  York  city, 
which  costless  than  $17,000,000,  are  stocked 
and  bonded  for  more  than  $60,000,000. 
173 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Within  the  last  twenty  years  many  of  the 
great  manufacturing  industries  have  merged 
themselves  into  corporations  or  associations, 
which  are  called  trusts.  These  also  are  cap- 
italized for  at  least  three  times  their  actual 
values. 

My  estimate  of  the  total  of  these  unwar- 
rantable and  dishonest  over-issues  of  stocks 
and  bonds  is  $5,000,000,000.  This  consti- 
tutes an  indirect  mortgage  upon  the  national 
products,  industries,  and  labor  of  our  whole 
country;  and  there  is  a  constant  struggle, 
against  public  welfare  and  prosperity,  to 
extort  from  patrons  and  consumers  prices 
which  will  pay  interest  and  dividends  upon 
these  fraudulently-issued  obligations.  Cor- 
porate bonds  are  unknown  to  the  laws  of 
European  countries.  In  those  older  civili- 
zations all  stock  or  debentures  issued  by  rail- 
way corporations  are  sold  for  face  or  par 
value ;  and  if  any  were  issued  by  officials  for 
less  than  the  stated  values,  the  officials  issu- 
ing, or  rather  attempting  to  issue,  them  would 
be  arrested  for  a  crime,  tried,  convicted,  and 
punished  as  felons. 

One  of  the  most  facile  means  in  the  hands 
174 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

of  avarice  for  cheating  the  poor  and  helpless 
is  the  "corporation  and  contractors'  store." 
It  is  usually  owned  by  corporations  whose 
employees  are  the  only  patrons,  and  the  rule 
is  to  sell  the  poorest  possible  quality  of  sup- 
plies at  the  highest  price  obtainable.  In 
many  instances  employees  are  given  to  under- 
stand that  they  are  expected  to  trade  at  the 
company  and  contract  stores,  or,  failing  to 
do  so,  will  be  discharged.  This  oppressive 
method  of  cheating  is  not  confined  to  any  par- 
ticular part  of  the  country,  but  prevails,  with 
varying  degrees  of  malignancy,  wherever 
under  one  management,  either  corporate, 
partnership,  or  individual,  any  considerable 
number  of  employees  are  assembled  together. 
Since  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  many  thou- 
sands of  ignorant  blacks  have  been  made  the 
victims  of  this  common  and  heartless  swindle, 
which  has  absorbed  their  scant  earnings.  At 
the  end  of  each  month,  year  in  and  out,  it 
has  proved  to  their  untrained  minds  an  aston- 
ishing fact  that  the  longer  and  the  harder 
they  worked  the  more  they  got  in  debt  to 
their  employers. 

Avarice,  once  let  loose,  knows  no  limits, 
175 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

and  never  halts  in  its  aggressive  career.  In 
the  pursuit  of  gain,  human  life  seems  of  very 
little  consequence.  Sham  building  is  another 
evil  that  is  clearly  attributable  to  the  greed 
of  the  capitalist ;  and  the  worst  illustration 
of  this  particular  evil  is  the  sham  American 
hotel,  which  is  to  be  found  in  every  part  of 
the  country ;  in  the  greatest  abundance,  how- 
ever, west  of  Philadelphia.  In  southern 
Colorado,  last  summer,  I  saw  one,  large 
enough  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  guests,  built 
entirely  of  pine  boards  and  small  scantling  ; 
no  bricks,  stone,  or  mortar  was  used,  save 
possibly  in  the  foundations.  A  fire  started 
in  the  first  story  would  consume  such  a  build- 
ing in  thirty  minutes,  and  few  of  the  inmates 
located  upon  the  floors  above  would  escape. 
Certainly  seven-tenths  of  the  hotels  in  the 
United  States  have  been  erected  with  special 
reference  to  cheapness  of  construction  rather 
than  for  the  safety  of  guests.  The  motto  of 
the  hotel-builder  is  :  Cover  as  much  ground 
as  possible ;  herd  the  greatest  number  of 
guests  upon  the  smallest  practicable  space  ; 
and  save  expense  by  substituting  sham  for 
substance.  The  burning  of  a  large  hotel  at 
176 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

• 

Milwaukee  a  few  years  ago,  and  the  later 
destruction  of  another  at  Syracuse,  sufficiently 
prove  the  truth  of  these  assertions. 

The  facts  recited  by  a  recent  correspon- 
dent* of  the  New  York  Times  will  apply  to  a 
large  majority  of  existing  American  hostel- 
ries.  He  says :  "  Apropos  of  the  burning  of  the 
Leland  House  at  Syracuse  last  night,  I  wish 
to  call  the  attention  of  the  public  to  a  little 
incident  which  happened  to  me  recently  when 
visiting  Syracuse.  I  met  a  gentleman  of  my 
acquaintance,  an  old  resident  of  Syracuse, 
who  asked  me  where  I  intended  to  stay.  I 
told  him  at  the  Leland  House,  whereupon 
he  said :  '  If  you  have  any  regard  for  the 
safety  of  your  life,  do  not  by  any  means  go 
to  the  Leland  House.  I  watched  that  hote! 
all  the  time  it  was  building,  and  there  is  not 
a  brick  partition  in  the  whole  house — nothing 
but  wood  and  plaster.  If  it  ever  takes  fire 
there  will  be  a  terrible  loss  of  life.'  "  The 
moral  of  this  story  can  be  readily  drawn  by 
those  who  are  interested. 

In  Europe  the  construction  of  public  hotels 
is  managed  differently.  The  Grand  and 

*  T.  V.  Johnson,  Jr.  ;  letter  of  October  16, 1890. 
177 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Continental,  at  Paris,  the  Langham,  Grand, 
Victoria,  Metropole,  the  Inns  of  Court,  and 
the  Avenue  Hotel,  in  London,  and  others  in 
Berlin,  Vienna,  and  St.  Petersburg  were 
erected  with  special  reference  to  housing  a 
large  number  of  human  beings  in  the  safest 
manner  possible.  They  are,  in  several 
instances,  like  great  fortifications ;  they  are 
so  solidly  put  together,  the  rooms  and  floors 
are  so  separated  by  bricks  and  mortar,  that  a 
fire  could  not  spread  beyond  its  original  loca- 
tion. 

Possibly  the  usual  inflammable  tinder-box 
American  theatre  is  a  still  completer  example 
of  our  sham  building  than  the  average  hotel. 

Look,  again,  at  the  unprecedented  destruc- 
tion of  game  upon  our  continent.  It  is  chiefly 
caused  by  avarice.  In  the  forests  of  the 
Northern  and  Eastern  States  the  moose  and 
deer  are  almost  extinct,  and  the  smaller 
quadrupeds,  such  as  coons  and  gray,  red, 
black,  and  flying  squirrels,  are  rapidly  pass- 
ing away.  In  the  West  the  bear  and  elk 
families  are  fast  disappearing ;  and  the  wan- 
ton slaughter  of  the  great  herds  of  North 
American  bison  forms  one  of  the  most  dis- 
178 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

couraging  chapters  in  the  history  of  our 
cruelties.  With  the  construction  of  the  first 
railroad  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  commenced  this 
wholesale,  indiscriminate  destruction.  While 
it  lasted,  accounts  were  often  published  in 
our  newspapers  of  bison  being  shot  by  pas- 
sengers from  the  windows  of  moving  trains. 
In  most  instances  they  were  wounded  and 
left  to  die  lingering  and  painful  deaths.  In 
this  business  many  brutal  Englishmen  who 
"  came  out  to  America  to  shoot "  took  the 
lead;  but  they  soon  found  a  numerous 
following  among  the  callow  snobs  of  our 
large  cities,  who  seem  to  exist  only  to  imitate 
the  follies,  vices,  and  outre  idiosyncracies  of 
the  idle  English  classes.  With  the  great 
killing  for  pleasure  came  the  greater  butcher- 
ing for  profit ;  and  so  persistently  were  both 
pursued  that  in  less  than  four  years  the  finest 
and  most  picturesque  of  all  the  animals  pecul- 
iar to  our  continent  was  practically  extermin- 
ated. During  the  years  1872-73-74  there 
were  killed  of  the  southern  herd  3,698,130, 
and  about  1,000,000  of  the  northern  herd. 
Five  millions  of  head  killed  in  those  years 
are  about  the  figures  of  this  unparalleled 
170 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

extermination.  It  is  estimated  that  in  the 
whole  of  North  America  there  are  now  635 
American  bison  running  wild  and  456  in 
captivity,  making  a  total  of  1,091.  These 
lamentable  statistics  stand  for  unprecedented 
savagery. 

The  beautiful  feathered  tribes,  lovely  song- 
sters of  the  forest  and  meadows,  have  fared 
no  better  than  their  four-footed  companions 
of  the  prairies  and  mountains.  How  well  I 
remember  the  cheery  spring  songs  incident 
to  the  New  England  meadow !  Having  once 
heard  them,  who  could  ever  forget  the  liquid 
jingling  notes  of  the  bobolink,  the  mellow 
song  of  the  meadow  lark,  and  the  joyous 
trillings  of  the  thrush !  The  robin,  the  wren, 
the  ground-sparrow,  the  woodpecker  and  jay, 
and  scores  of  others  which  came  to  greet  us 
with  their  merry  chirps  and  calls  with  the 
advent  of  every  spring,  are  also  not  to  be 
forgotten.  Now  in  their  retreats  we  see  the 
human  biped  with  gun  and  bag,  shooting 
down  anything  that  can  fly,  if  only  it  has  a 
wing  or  a  feather  large  enough  to  adorn  the 
head  of  vanity.  To  the  demands  of  com- 
merce, the  wantonness  of  the  purchaser,  and 
180 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

the  ignorance  of  those  to  whom  the  power 
of  making  our  laws  is  given,  we  may  look  for 
the  certain  destruction  of  every  species  of 
American  song  and  plumage  birds.  Before 
the  end  of  the  next  fifty  years  the  brute  of 
the  bird-gun  and  bag  may  hang  both  upon 
his  wall  for  want  of  use. 

The  proposed  fish-culture,  while  an  admir- 
able measure,  will  be  futile  unless  reenf orced 
and  sustained  by  legislation,  which  is  in  many 
States  entirely  lacking  as  yet.  The  drain 
upon  the  food  fishes  which  inhabit  the  waters 
near  the  shores  of  our  continent  is  veiy  rap- 
idly increasing,  and  bids  fair,  within  a  few 
years,  unless  some  check  is  imposed  by  the 
Canadian  and  our  own  government,  to  exter- 
minate several  valuable  species  of  table  fish. 
The  lobster  is  already  fast  diminishing,  and 
will  be  the  first  to  disappear ;  then  the  choicer 
groups  of  oysters  will  go ;  then  the  runs  of  cod- 
fish will  be  greatly  reduced,  and  the  salmon 
will  probably  disappear.  The  destruction  of 
the  latter  upon  the  western  coast  of  a  portion  of 
our  continent  is  without  precedent.  A  Cana- 
dian official  connected  with  the  Bureau  of 
Dominions  Fisheries  has  estimated  that  in 
181 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

less  than  twenty  years,  at  the  present  rate  of 
catching  for  the  canneries,  the  salmon  will  be 
seen  no  more  in  its  present  haunts.  Of  the 
many  millions  taken  each  season,  a  large  pro- 
portion are  too  young  and  small  for  canning, 
but,  instead  of  being  put  back  in  the  water, 
a  small  piece  is  cut  from  the  middle  of  the 
body  and  the  rest  of  the  fish  is  thrown  away. 
The  brook-trout  of  the  mountain  streams 
were  nearly  exterminated  long  ago,  and  their 
home  disappeared  with  our  forests,  never  to 
return  until  the  latter  are  rehabilitated. 

There  is  the  same  history  with  the  seal. 
Lately  an  official  statement  has  been  made  to 
our  government  to  the  effect  that  there 
are  not  more  than  125,000  fur  seals  left  in 
the  waters  of  Alaska;  coupled  with  that 
statement  was  a  recommendation  that  no  more 
killing  should  be  permitted  for  a  period  of 
seven  years.  Unless  something  is  done  by 
the  united  action  of  Russia,  England,  and 
our  own  government,  there  is  danger  of  this 
most  valuable  of  all  fur-bearing  animals  be- 
coming extinct  in  a  very  short  time. 

Yet  we  have  not  described  thus  far  what 
is  perhaps  the  most  wanton  and  wicked 
182 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

cruelty  of  this  sickening  history.  It  is  the 
wholesale  and  monstrous  destruction  of  do- 
mestic stock  west  of  the  Mississippi  River. 
It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  from  the  most 
northerly  to  the  southern  boundaries  of  our 
stock-ranges  there  is  neither  winter  food  nor 
shelter  provided  for  horned  cattle  or  sheep. 
The  old  of  both  kinds  and  the  young  are  all 
herded  together  in  the  open  fields,  utterly 
unprotected  from  wind,  rain,  or  snow ;  there  is 
neither  shrub,  bush,  nor  tree  to  shelter  them. 
In  many  parts  of  the  north  and  west  covered 
by  these  feeding  fields  the  snowfall  is  very 
deep,  and  often  lasts  from  three  to  six  weeks. 
While  these  snows  cover  the  earth,  the  graz- 
ing stock  is  absolutely  without  food.  The 
consequent  mortality  is  appalling.  Accord- 
ing to  official  statistics  from  12  to  15^  per 
cent,  of  the  cattle  and  from  17  to  27*^  per 
cent,  of  the  sheep  died  from  exposure  to  cold 
and  want  of  food  during  the  winter  of  1889 
and  1890.  The  total  number  of  animals 
which  thus  perished  is  put  down  at  3,470,600 
head.  Doubtless  the  number  was  much 
larger,  and  4,000,000  would  be  a  more  cor- 
rect estimate  of  the  total. 
183 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

What  a  world  of  pain  and  suffering  these 
figures  suggest !  The  poor  animals  relieved 
by  death  suffered,  perhaps,  no  more  than 
those  that  survived  only  to  be  mercilessly 
transported  in  overcrowded  cars  and  slaugh- 
tered at  the  end  of  their  journey.  We  may, 
in  my  belief,  search  in  vain  through  all  his- 
tory for  a  parallel  to  match  that  gigantic 
scheme  of  cruelty.  It  continues  from  year 
to  year,  and  has  continued  in  an  unbroken 
stream  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
without  even  a  protest  from  lawmakers  or 
the  Christian  clergy.  Christianity,  indeed, 
has  neither  preached  nor  practised  humanity 
towards  animals.  But  Sunday-school  chil- 
dren by  hundreds  of  thousands  are  taught 
what  a  terrible  thing  it  is  to  break  the  Sab- 
bath ;  museum  trustees  tremble  with  pious 
horror  at  the  suggestion  of  opening  the  doors 
leading  to  the  collections  on  that  day;  mis- 
sionaries by  the  thousand  are  sent  to  the  far 
east,  west,  and  south  to  convert  the  kindly 
heathen  from  their  evil  ways — heathen  who 
do  not  know  the  A  B  C  of  dishonesty  and 
cruelty  as  practised  in  Christian  America. 
And  so  we  go  on  over  the  world  strain- 
184 


OUR  POLTICAL  DEGRADATION 

ing  out  the  gnats  of  other  people  and  swal- 
lowing whole  herds  of  camels  at  our  own 
doors. 

When  in  Chicago  a  few  months  ago,  I  ex- 
pressed to  a  leading  citizen  of  that  city  a 
desire  to  see  one  of  the  great  slaughtering 
establishments.  With  an  expression  clearly 
indicating  his  astonishment  at  my  request,  he 
advised  me  to  avoid  such  a  horrible  sight,  at 
the  same  time  saying  it  was  the  most  dis- 
gusting of  all  occupations,  and,  as  to  the 
slaughter  of  hogs,  most  unnecessarily  cruel.  In 
the  West  this  industry  is  very  much  lauded, 
possibly  for  the  profits  it  yields,  and  the 
packer  is  regarded  as  a  representative  man, 
typical  of  "  Western  progress." 

But  if  all  of  our  other  much-lauded  iniqui- 
ties of  avarice  could  be  combined  in  one,  the 
joint  result  would  sink  into  insignificance 
when  placed  by  the  side  of  our  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  of  cruel  treatment  of  the  In- 
dians. 

At  Cambridge,  in  Massachusetts,  in  the 
year  1661  was  published  the  first  edition  of 
Eliot's  translation  of  the  New  Testament  in- 
to the  Indian  language;  and  in  1663,  in  the 
185 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

same  town,  was  issued  his  complete  transla- 
tion, into  the  same  tongue,  of  the  whole 
Bible. 

In  the  autumn  of  1676,  near  Dover,  Cap- 
tain Waldron,  under  pretence  of  a  sham 
fight,  decoyed  a  considerable  body  of  peace- 
ful Indians  to  his  camp,  and,  after  depriving 
them  of  their  arms  by  deceit,  made  them 
prisoners.  Two  hundred  of  the  number  thus 
captured  were  sent  to  the  West  Indies  and 
sold  for  slaves,  and  the  good  pious  Puritans 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  who  had  furnished 
them  with  Bibles  for  the  benefit  of  their 
souls,  reaped  the  financial  results  flowing 
from  the  sale  of  their  bodies,  and  recorded 
themselves  as  the  first  of  the  American  colo- 
nists to  sell  human  beings  into  slavery. 

From  that  time  to  the  present,  fraud,  rapa- 
city, and  cruelty  are  the  words  which  most 
fittingly  describe  our  intercourse  with  these 
helpless  wards  of  a  powerful  people.  They 
have  been  habitually  cheated  in  the  quality 
and  quantity  of  supplies  furnished  by  the 
government  under  treaty  stipulations.  Sol- 
emn treaties  made  with  them  to-day  are  bro- 
ken to-morrow,  in  the  interest  of  fraud.  In- 
186 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

dian  agents  very  often  are  of  the  spoilsman- 
politician  class,  who  ally  themselves  with 
dishonest  contractors  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
moting schemes  to  plunder  their  charges; 
and  often  Indians  have  been  provoked — exas- 
perated— to  the  commission  of  an  offence  by 
unthrifty  whites,  who  would  seize  such  an 
event  as  an  excuse  for  an  Indian  war ;  their 
object  being  the  assembling,  in  a  certain  non- 
prosperous  locality,  of  a  considerable  body  of 
troops,  necessitating  large  expenditures  of 
government  moneys.  These  wretches  would 
burn  down  a  city  to  roast  a  pig.  Various 
Indian  tribes  were  concentrated  upon  reser- 
vations, but  the  cheating  continued  at  the 
agencies;  and  now  the  scheming  white  set- 
tler and  the  railroad  sharp,  in  the  "  interest 
of  progress  and  civilization,"  declare  that  the 
Indians  are  not  entitled  to  their  own,  and  are 
bringing  to  bear  upon  Congress  and  Federal 
officials  all  the  varieties  of  influence  which 
accomplished  rascality  can  invent  to  drive 
them  from  the  rightful  possessions. 

The  late  General  Harney  probably  knew  as 
much  of  the  character  of  the  North  Ameri- 
can Indians  as  any  man  that  ever  lived.     His 
187 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

active  intercourse  with  them  covered  a  period 
of  over  forty  years.  He  used  to  say  of  the 
savage  Indians,  before  they  were  contami- 
nated by  contact  with  the  whites,  that  they 
were  the  most  honest  and  truthful  people  he 
had  ever  known.  He  had  never  caught  one 
in  an  untruth,  and  was  sure  they  did  not 
know  how  to  lie.  These  views  were  emphat- 
ically confirmed  by  the  late  General  Wool, 
who  used  to  add  that  the  Indian  agents  were 
all  thieves. 

General  Albert  Pike,  another  friend  of  the 
Indian,  and  a  believer  in  the  natural  nobility 
of  his  character,  recently  died  in  Washington. 
He  wrote,  Oct.  2,  1890 : 

"  I  have  had  much  to  do  with  several  Indian  tribes. 
I  have  known  a  great  many  of  their  chiefs;  have  been 
counsel  for  two  of  the  civilized  tribes  against  the 
United  States  ;  have  commanded  their  troops ;  acted 
as  superintendent,  and  made  treaties  as  commissioner 
of  the  Confederate  States;  met  the  five  civilized 
tribes,  the  Osages,  Quapaws,  Senecas  and  Shawnees, 
the  Comanches  and  Caiawos,  Caddos,  Aiouais,  Kich- 
ois,  Toncawes,  Tawaihast,  Huecos  and  Tawacaros, 
and  have  known  many  Delawares,  Shawanos,  and 
Skekapos.  I  think  they  are  the  most  honest  and 
188 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

truthful  people  in  the  world,  and  the  most  confiding 
when  they  give  their  confidence  at  all.  Not  in  one 
instance  did  those  with  whom  I  made  treaties  ask 
any  change  that  was  not  right  and  fair  ;  and  what- 
ever my  decision  was,  it  was  acquiesced  in  by  all  and 
accepted  with  perfect  contentment.  I  never  knew  a 
claim  made  to  property  by  any  of  them,  or  a  claim 
for  compensation  preferred,  that  was  not  just  and 
reasonable.  All  the  tribes  with  which  I  made  trea- 
ties kept  them  to  the  letter  and  in  spirit,  in  perfect 
good  faith.  Up  to  that  [my]  time  no  treaty  had 
ever  done  complete  justice  to  any  Indian  tribe.  Al- 
most invariably  the  Indians  were  tricked  and  de- 
ceived by  the  whites,  their  just  claims  cut  down,  and 
most  shamefully  unjust  clauses  against  them  allowed 
and  enforced. 

"  General  Sam  Houston  said  to  me  once  that  the 
United  States  had  never  made  a  treaty  with  the  In- 
dians which  they  did  not  deliberately  violate  ;  and 
that  was  true.  All  Indians  are  not  alike.  The 
Apaches,  it  was  always  said,  were  treacherous  and 
faithless.  The  Navajos  were  neither,  but  truthful, 
upright,  and  honest,  and  they  have  been  plundered 
without  compunction  or  shame. 

"  In  my  opinion,  there  has  seldom  been  an  Indian 
war  or  outbreak  that  was  not  caused  by  violating  a 
189 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

treaty  or  other  gross  bad  faith  or  wrong  dealing  on 
the  part  of  our  government  or  people.  For  fifty 
years  an  invisible  line  divided  the  people  of  Arkan- 
sas from  the  Cherokees,  Creeks,  and  Ohoctaws;  and 
in  all  that  long  time  no  complaint  was  made  by  the 
Indians  against  the  whites  or  whites  against  In- 
dians. " 

The  foregoing  is  the  testimony  of  an  intel- 
ligent and  disinterested  witness  of  great  ex- 
perience. His  estimate  of  the  Indian  char- 
acter is  fully  sustained  by  Canadian  officials 
who  have,  from  time  to  time,  had  control  of 
the  Indian  tribes  of  that  country;  and,  to 
our  everlasting  shame,  the  experience  just  on 
the  north  side  of  our  border  proves  our  iniq- 
uity in  dealing  with  our  Indians.  There, 
humanity  and  good  faith  have  dictated  the 
rule  of  action  in  dealing  with  them,  and  the 
result  is  that  Canada  has  never  an  Indian 
war,  an  uprising,  or  any  serious  trouble  with 
a  single  tribe. 

On  December  3  of  last  year,  the  United 
States  Senate  discussed  a  resolution  to  furn- 
ish arms  and  ammunition  to  the  inhabitants  of 
North  and  South  Dakota,  to  enable  them  to 
defend  themselves  against  attacks  that  might 
190 


CUE   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

be  made  upon  them  by  the  Indians  then 
assembled  at  Pine  Ridge.  While  debating 
the  resolution  Senator  Voorhees,  of  Indiana, 
made  a  strong  plea  for  better  treatment. 
His  arraignment  of  the  government  was  un- 
answerable and  effective.  Among  his  re- 
marks occurs  the  following  pathetic  appeal : 

"  I  shall  not  oppose  the  passage  of  this  resolution, 
and  I  shall  not  vote  against  the  issuance  of  these 
arms  to  the  people ;  but  I  cannot  let  it  pass,  with 
the  feelings  I  entertain  in  regard  to  the  administra- 
tion of  our  Indian  affairs,  without  a  word. 

"  If  the  proposition  were  to  issue  100,000  rations 
and  more  to  the  starving  Indians,  it  would  be  more 
consistent  with  Christian  civilization  than  the  policy 
we  are  now  pursuing.  When  a  major-general  of  the 
War  Department  is  publicly  interviewed  and  pub- 
lishes that  the  Indians  are  driven  to  revolt — rebel- 
lion, if  you  please  to  call  it — and  to  the  savagery  of 
the  Indian  warfare  by  starvation,  it  becomes  an  inex- 
piable crime,  in  my  judgment,  on  the  part  of  this 
government  to  stand  silently  by  and  do  nothing  ex- 
cept to  furnish  arms.  General  Miles  has  stated  to 
the  public,  and  to  me  before  he  did  to  the  public,  that 
these  Indians  are  being  starved  into  hostility,  and  that 
they  prefer  to  die  fighting  to  being  starved  to  death. 
191 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

"I  look  upon  the  policy  which  has  been  pursued 
by  the  administration  of  Indian  affairs  as  a  crime 
revolting  to  man  and  God.  I  look  upon  the  present 
outbreak,  or  the  threatened  outbreak, — which  will 
bring  not  merely  the  destruction  of  the  Indians,  but 
will  bathe  the  snows  of  the  northwest,  crimson  with 
the  blood  of  our  brave  soldiers  and  officers, — as  some- 
thing revolting  in  the  extreme.  Instead  of  sitting 
here  debating  election  bills  and  force  bills,  and  pro- 
viding for  the  issuance  of  arms  to  the  States  in  the 
northwest,  we  should  be  hurrying,  anxiously  and 
eagerly,  to  provide  for  the  feeding  of  these  starving 
people.  General  Miles  says  they  have  been  hungry 
for  the  last  two  years  ;  that  they  are  devoured  with 
hunger,  wretched,  and  perfectly  desperate,  and 
would  rather  die  with  arms  in  their  hands  than  with 
empty  stomachs. 

"  They  have  no  newspapers.  Their  privations  and 
griefs  and  sufferings  cannot  be  made  known.  They 
have  been  suffering  in  silence  there  for  years,  while 
guilt  is  somewhere." 

It  is  probably  true  that  the  North  Ameri- 
can Indians  are  not  the  superior  beings  de- 
scribed by  the  witness  cited ;  but  what  they 
were  or  are  matters  very  little.  If  they  were 
as  bad  as  their  worst  enemies  describe  them 
193 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

to  be,  their  imperfections  of  character  would 
be  no  excuse  for  our  faithlessness  in  dealing 
with  them. 

The  point  I  desire  to  make  in  closing  this 
account  of  a  few  of  our  shortcomings  is  this : 
The  misdeeds  described  are  perpetrated  in 
the  open  light  of  day,  and  go  on  year  after  year 
without  protest  either  from  the  Federal  or 
State  governments  or  from  any  considerable 
portion  of  our  people.  One  of  the  unwritten 
mottoes  of  our  business  morals  seems  to  say 
in  the  plainest  phraseology  possible :  "  Suc- 
cessful wrong  is  right." 

The  general  government  finds  no  difficulty 
in  punishing  a  counterfeiter  who  issues  false 
money,  be  the  amount  ever  so  small,  or  a 
post-office  clerk  who  takes  a  few  dollars  from  a 
letter.  But  the  man  who  is  a  power  in  poli- 
tics, who  steals  public  lands  by  the  thousands 
of  acres;  the  schemer  who  robs  the  public 
treasury  of  great  amounts  of  money,  or  the 
agent  who  yearly  cheats  the  Indians  out  of 
scores  of  thousands  of  dollars,  is  beyond  the 
reach  of  those  who  administer  and  execute 
our  laws.  Great  knaves  who  succeed  are 
respected  and  often  admired.  Little  thieves 
193 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

are  regarded  as  contemptible,  and  fill  our 
prisons.  But  the  big  ones  live  in  palaces, 
and  are  usually  great  powers  in  the  communi- 
ties in  which  they  live. 

Not  long  ago  a  French  official,  an  expert 
in  a  special  department,  who  had  held  over 
from  the  empire,  complained  to  a  friend  that 
he  was  compelled  to  employ  twenty  clerks  to 
do  the  work  done  by  four  under  the  empire. 
He  was  asked  if  he  knew  of  any  reason  for 
the  change,  and  answered :  "  It  is  the  repub- 
lic." "But  why  do  you  not  prevent  this 
abuse  ?  You  are  the  head  of  the  bureau,  and 
have  the  power."  "  Yes,  I  know  I  have  the 
power;  but  I  have  been  in  this  position  for 
more  than  thirty  years,  and  am  now  too  old 
to  learn  another  occupation;  and  I  must 
make  places  for  the  friends  of  the  deputies." 
And  so  it  is  here.  The  republic  and  the 
friends  of  the  deputies  of  the  people  must  be 
favored.  Neither  the  republic  nor  separate 
States  hinder  or  check  the  offences  of  indi- 
viduals of  political  importance,  whose  crimes 
are  against  the  property  of  the  people,  or  of 
others  whose  deeds  of  plundering  and  cruelty 
result  in  considerable  profits. 
194 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

The  influence  of  these  offences  against 
civilization  is  far-reaching  and  destructive. 
The  fact  that  a  considerable  number  of  indi- 
viduals obtain  great  wealth  by  dishonest 
schemes  and  cruel  practices  is  of  little 
moment  when  compared  with  the  effect  their 
financial  successes  produce  upon  particular 
communities  and  the  country  at  large.  They 
have  established  a  national  standard,  and 
now  only  one  kind  of  success  is  acknow- 
ledged. Morality  has  no  market  value. 
High  character  is  impracticable,  and  intel- 
lectual achievement  pays  no  dividends. 
These  qualities  count  for  very  little  in  the 
estimation  of  the  public  when  compared  with 
the  glory  of  great  possessions.  The  owner- 
ship of  millions,  no  matter  how  obtained, 
constitutes  a  theme  of  almost  national  admira- 
tion; and  if  they  were  stolen  outright  and 
their  possessor  is  out  of  prison,  the  homage 
would  be  about  the  same.  The  motto  is : 
"  We  worship  the  millions  in  hand,  and  no 
questions  asked." 

Is  it  not  time  that  there  should  be  an 
awakening  ? 

RUSH  C.  HAWKINS. 
195 


IS  AVARICE  TRIUMPHANT? 

BY  COLONEL  ROBERT  GK  INGERSOLL. 

THERE  are  many  people,  in  all  countries, 
who  seem  to  enjoy  individual  and  national 
decay.  They  love  to  prophesy  the  triumph 
of  evil.  They  mistake  the  afternoon  of  their 
own  lives  for  the  evening  of  the  world.  To 
them  everything  has  changed.  Men  are  no 
longer  honest  or  brave,  and  women  have 
ceased  to  be  beautiful.  They  are  dyspeptic, 
and  it  gives  them  the  greatest  pleasure  to 
say  that  the  art  of  cooking  has  been  lost. 

For  many  generations  many  of  these  peo- 
ple occupied  the  pulpits.  They  lifted  the 
hand  of  warning  whenever  the  human  race 
took  a  step  in  advance.  As  wealth  increased, 
they  declared  that  honesty  and  goodness  and 
self-denial  and  charity  were  vanishing  from 
the  earth.  They  doubted  the  morality  of 
well-dressed  people — considered  it  impossible 
that  the  prosperous  should  be  pious.  Like 
196 


OUE  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

owls  sitting  on  the  limbs  of  a  dead  tree,  they 
hooted  the  obsequies  of  spring,  believing  it 
would  come  no  more. 

There  are  some  patriots  who  think  it  their 
duty  to  malign  and  slander  the  land  of  their 
birth.  They  feel  that  they  have  a  kind  of 
Cassandra  mission,  and  they  really  seem  to 
enjoy  their  work.  They  honestly  believe 
that  every  kind  of  crime  is  on  the  increase, 
that  the  courts  are  all  corrupt,  that  the  legis- 
lators are  bribed,  that  the  witnesses  are 
suborned,  that  all  holders  of  office  are  dishon- 
est ;  and  they  feel  like  a  modern  Marius  sitting 
amid  the  ruins  of  all  the  virtues. 

It  is  useless  to  endeavor  to  persuade  these 
people  that  they  are  wrong.  They  do  not 
want  arguments,  because  they  will  not  heed 
them.  They  need  medicine.  Their  case  is 
not  for  a  philosopher,  but  for  a  physician. 

General  Hawkins  is  probably  right  when  he 
says  that  some  fraudulent  shoes,  some  useless 
muskets,  and  some  worn-out  vessels  were  sold 
to  the  government  during  the  war ;  but  we 
must  remember  that  there  were  millions  and 
millions  of  as  good  shoes  as  art  and  honesty 
could  make,  millions  of  the  best  muskets  ever 
197 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

constructed,  and  hundreds  of  the  most  magni- 
ficent ships  ever  built,  sold  to  the  govern- 
ment during  the  same  period.  We  must  not 
mistake  an  eddy  for  the  main  stream.  We 
must  also  remember  another  thing :  there 
were  millions  of  good,  brave,  and  patriotic 
men  to  wear  the  shoes,  to  use  the  muskets, 
and  to  man  the  ships. 

So  it  is  probably  true  that  Congress  was 
extravagant  in  land  subsidies  voted  to  rail- 
roads; but  that  this  legislation  was  secured 
by  bribery  is  preposterous.  It  was  all  done 
in  the  light  of  noon.  There  is  not  the  slight- 
est evidence  tending  to  show  that  the  general 
policy  of  hastening  the  construction  of  rail- 
ways through  the  territories  of  the  United 
States  was  corruptly  adopted — not  the  slight- 
est. At  the  same  time,  it  may  be  that  some 
members  of  Congress  were  induced  by  per- 
sonal considerations  to  vote  for  such  subsidies. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  policy  was  wise,  and 
through  the  granting  of  the  sudsidies  thou- 
sands of  miles  of  railways  were  built,  and 
these  railways  have  given  to  civilization  vast 
territories  which  otherwise  would  have 
remained  substantially  useless  to  the  world. 
198 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Where  at  that  time  was  a  wilderness  now  are 
some  of  the  most  thriving  cities  in  the  United 
States — a  great,  an  industrious,  and  a  happy 
population.  The  results  have  justified  the 
action  of  Congress. 

It  is  also  true  that  some  railroads  have 
been  " wrecked"  in  the  United  States,  but 
most  of  these  wrecks  have  been  the  result  of 
competition.  It  is  the  same  with  corporations 
as  with  individuals — the  powerful  combine 
against  the  weak.  In  the  world  of  commerce 
and  business  is  the  great  law  of  the  survival 
of  the  strongest.  Railroads  are  not  eleemosy- 
nary institutions.  They  have  but  little 
regard  for  the  rights  of  one  another.  Some 
fortunes  have  been  made  by  the  criminal 
"  wrecking  "  of  roads,  but  even  in  the  busi- 
ness of  corporations  honesty  is  the  best 
policy,  and  the  companies  that  have  acted  in 
accordance  with  the  highest  standard,  other 
things  being  equal,  have  reaped  the  richest 
harvest. 

Many  railways  were  built  in  advance  of  a 

demand;  they  had  to  develop  the  country 

through  which   they   passed.      While    they 

waited  for  immigration,  interest  accumulated ; 

199 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

as  a  result  foreclosure  took  place  ;  then  reorg- 
anization. By  that  time  the  country  had 
been  populated ;  towns  were  springing  up 
along  the  line ;  increased  business  was  the 
result.  On  the  new  bonds  and  the  new 
stock  the  company  paid  interest  and  divid- 
ends. Then  the  ones  who  first  invested  and 
lost  their  money  felt  that  they  had  been 
defrauded. 

So  it  is  easy  to  say  that  certain  men  are 
guilty  of  crimes — easy  to  indict  the  entire 
nation,  and  at  the  same  time  impossible  to 
substantiate  one  of  the  charges.  Every  one 
who  knows  the  history  of  the  star-route 
trials  knows  that  nothing  was  established 
against  the  defendants,  knows  that  every 
effort  was  made  by  the  government  to  con- 
vict them,  and  also  knows  that  an  un- 
prejudiced jury  of  twelve  men,  never  sus- 
pected of  being  improperly  influenced,  after 
having  heard  the  entire  case,  pronounced  the 
defendants  not  guilty.  After  this,  of  course, 
any  one  can  say,  who  knows  nothing  of  the 
evidence  and  who  cares  nothing  for  the  facts, 
that  the  defendants  were  all  guilty. 

It  may  also  be  true  that  some  settlers  in 
200 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

the  far  West  have  taken  timber  from  the 
public  lands,  and  it  may  be  that  it  was  a 
necessity.  Our  laws  and  regulations  were 
such  that  where  a  settler  was  entitled  to  take 
up  a  certain  amount  of  land  he  had  to  take 
it  all  in  one  place ;  he  could  not  take  a  cer- 
tain number  of  acres  on  the  plains  and  a 
certain  number  of  acres  in  the  timber.  The 
consequence  was  that  when  he  settled  upon 
the  land — the  land  that  he  could  cultivate — 
he  took  the  timber  that  he  needed  from  the 
government  land,  and  this  has  been  called 
stealing.  So  I  suppose  it  may  be  said  that 
the  cattle  stole  the  government's  grass  and 
possibly  drank  the  government's  water. 

It  will  also  be  admitted  with  pleasure  that 
stock  has  been  "  watered "  in  this  country., 
And  what  is  the  crime  or  practice  known  as 
watering  stock?  For  instance,  you  have  a 
railroad  one  hundred  miles  long,  worth,  we 
will  say,  $3,000,000 — able  to  pay  interest  on 
that  sum  at  the  rate  of  6  per  cent.  Now, 
we  all  know  that  the  amount  of  stock 
issued  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  value  of 
the  thing  represented  by  the  stock.  If  there 
was  one  share  of  stock  representing  this 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

railroad,  it  would  be  worth  three  million 
dollars,  whether  it  said  on  its  face  it  was  one 
dollar  or  one  hundred  dollars.  If  there  were 
three  million  shares  of  stock  issued  on  this 
property,  they  would  be  worth  one  dollar 
apiece,  and,  no  matter  whether  it  said  on 
this  stock  that  each  share  was  a  hundred 
dollars  or  a  thousand  dollars,  the  share 
would  be  worth  one  dollar — no  more,  no 
less.  If  any  one  wishes  to  find  the  value  of 
stock,  he  should  find  the  value  of  the  thing 
represented  by  the  stock.  It  is  perfectly 
clear  that,  if  a  pie  is  worth  one  dollar  and 
you  cut  it  into  four  pieces,  each  piece  is 
worth  twenty-five  cents;  and  if  you  cut  it 
into  a  thousand  pieces,  you  do  not  increase 
the  value  of  the  pie.  If,  then,  you  wish  to 
find  the  value  of  a  share  of  stock,  find  its  re- 
lation to  the  thing  represented  by  all  the 
stock. 

It  can  also  be  safely  admitted  that  trusts 
have  been  formed.  The  reason  is  perfectly 
clear.  Corporations  are  like  individuals — 
they  combine.  Unfortunate  corporations 
become  socialistic,  anarchistic,  and  cry  out 
against  the  abuses  of  trusts.  It  is  natural 
202 


OUE  POLITICAL  DEGKADATION 

for  corporations  to  defend  themselves — natu- 
ral for  them  to  stop  ruinous  competition  by 
a  profitable  pool ;  and  when  strong  corpora- 
tions combine,  little  corporations  suffer.  It 
is  with  corporations  as  with  fishes — the  large 
eat  the  little ;  and  it  may  be  that  this  will 
prove  a  public  benefit  in  the  end.  When 
the  large  corporations  have  taken  possession 
of  the  little  ones,  it  may  be  that  the  govern- 
ment will  take  possession  of  them — the  gov- 
ernment being  the  largest  corporation  of 
them  all. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  all  houses  are 
not  fireproof;  but  certainly  no  one  imagines 
that  the  people  of  this  country  build  houses 
for  the  purpose  of  having  them  burned,  or 
that  they  erect  hotels  having  in  view  the 
broiling  of  guests.  Men  act  as  they  must ; 
that  is  to  say,  according  to  wants  and  neces- 
sities. In  a  new  country  the  buildings  are 
cheaper  than  in  an  old  one,  money  is  scarcer, 
interest  higher,  and  consequently  people 
build  cheaply  and  take  the  risks  of  fire. 
They  do  not  do  this  on  account  of  the  con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  or  the  action 
of  political  parties,  or  the  general  idea  that 
203 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

man  is  entitled  to  be  free.  In  the  hotels  of 
Europe  it  may  be  that  there  is  not  as  great 
danger  of  fire  as  of  famine. 

The  destruction  of  game  and  of  the  sing- 
ing birds  is  to  be  greatly  regretted,  not  only 
in  this  country,  but  in  all  others.  The  peo- 
ple of  America  have  been  too  busy  felling 
forests,  ploughing  fields,  and  building  houses, 
to  cultivate  to  the  highest  degree,  the  aesthe- 
tic side  of  their  natures.  Nature  has  been 
somewhat  ruthless  with  us.  The  storms  of 
winter  breasted  by  the  Western  pioneer,  the 
whirlwinds  of  summer,  have  tended,  it  may 
be,  to  harden  somewhat  the  sensibilities ;  in 
consequence  of  which  they  have  allowed 
their  horses  and  cattle  to  bear  the  rigors  of 
the  same  climate. 

It  is  also  true  that  the  seal-fisheries  are 
being  destroyed,  in  the  interest  of  the  pres- 
ent, by  those  who  care  nothing  for  the  future. 
All  these  things  are  to  be  deprecated,  are  to 
be  spoken  against;  but  we  must  not  hint, 
provided  we  are  lovers  of  the  republic,  that 
such  things  are  caused  by  free  institutions. 

General  Hawkins  asserts  that  "  Christian- 
ity has  neither  preached  nor  practised  human- 
204 


OUE   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

ity  towards  animals,"  while  at  the  same  time 
"  Sunday-school  children  by  hundreds  of 
thousands  are  taught  what  a  terrible  thing 
it  is  to  break  the  Sabbath  "  ;  that  "  museum 
trustees  tremble  with  pious  horror  at  the 
suggestion  of  opening  the  doors  leading  to 
the  collections  on  that  day,"  and  that  no 
protests  have  come  "  from  lawmakers  or  the 
Christian  clergy." 

Few  people  will  suspect  me  of  going  out 
of  my  way  to  take  care  of  Christianity  or  of 
the  clergy.  At  the  same  time,  I  can  afford 
to  state  the  truth.  While  there  is  not  much 
in  the  Bible  with  regard  to  practising  hu- 
manity towards  animals,  there  is  at  least  this : 
"  The  merciful  man  is  merciful  to  his  beast." 
Of  course,  I  am  not  alluding  now  to  the  ex- 
ample set  by  Jehovah  when  he  destroyed  the 
cattle  of  the  Egyptians  with  hailstones  and 
diseases  on  account  of  the  sins  of  their 
owners. 

In  regard  to  the  treatment  of  animals 
Christians  have  been  much  like  other  peo- 
ple. 

So,  hundreds  of  lawmakers  have  not  only 
protested  against  cruelty  to  animals,  but 
205 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

enough  have  protested  against  it  to  secure 
the  enactment  of  laws  making  cruelty  towards 
animals  a  crime.  Henry  Bergh,  who  did  as 
much  good  as  any  man  who  has  lived  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  was  seconded  in  his  eff orts 
by  many  of  the  Christian  clergy  not  only, 
but  by  hundreds  and  thousands  of  professing 
Christians — probably  millions.  Let  us  be 
honest. 

/  j+^tt  It  is  true  that  the  clergy  are  apt  to  lose 
J<^  tne  distinction  between  offences  and  virtues, 
r  to  regard  the  little  as  the  important — that  is 

to  say,  to  invert  the  pyramid. 

It  is  true  that  the  Indians  have  been  badly 
treated.  It  is  true  that  the  fringe  of  civili- 
zation has  been  composed  of  many  low  and 
cruel  men.  It  is  true  that  the  red  man  has 
been  demoralized  by  the  vices  of  the  white. 
It  is  a  frightful  fact  that,  when  a  superior 
race  meets  an  inferior,  the  inferior  imitates 
only  the  vices  of  the  superior,  and  the  supe- 
rior those  of  the  inferior.  They  exchange 
faults  and  failings.  This  is  one  of  the  most 
terrible  facts  in  the  history  of  the  human  race. 

Nothing  can  be  said  to  justify  our  treat- 
ment  of   the    Indians.     There   is,  however, 
206 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

this  shadow  of  an  excuse :  In  the  old  times, 
when  we  lived  along  the  'Atlantic,  it  hardly 
occurred  to  our  ancestors  that  they  could  ever 
go  beyond  the  Ohio ;  so  the  first  treaty  with 
the  Indians  drove  them  back  but  a  few  miles. 
In  a  little  while,  through  immigration,  the 
white  race  passed  the  line,  and  another  treaty 
was  made,  forcing  the  Indians  still  further 
west ;  yet  the  tide  of  immigration  kept  on, 
and  in  a  little  while  again  the  line  was 
passed,  the  treaty  violated.  Another  treaty 
was  made,  pushing  the  Indians  still  further 
toward  the  Pacific,  across  the  Illinois,  across 
the  Mississippi,  across  the  Missouri,  violating 
at  every  step  some  treaty  made ;  and  "each 
treaty  born  of  the  incapacity  of  the  white 
men  who  made  it  to  foretell  the  growth  of 
the  republic. 

But  the  author  of  "  Brutality  and  Ava- 
rice Triumphant "  made  a  great  mistake 
when  he  selected  the  last  thirty  years  of  our 
national  life  as  the  period  within  which  the 
Americans  have  made  a  change  of  the  national 
motto  appropriate,  and  asserted  that  now 
there  should  be  in  place  of  the  old  motto  the 
words,  "  Plundering  Made  Easy." 
207 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Most  men  believe  in  a  sensible  and  manly 
patriotism.  No  one  should  be  blind  to  the 
defects  in  the  laws  and  institutions  of  his 
country.  He  should  call  attention  to  abuses, 
not  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  his  countiy 
into  disrepute,  but  that  the  abuses  may  cease 
and  the  defects  be  corrected.  He  should  do 
what  he  can  to  make  his  country  great,  pros- 
perous, just,  and  free.  But  it  is  hardly  fair 
to  exaggerate  the  faults  of  your  countiy  for 
the  purpose  of  calling  attention  to  your  own 
virtues,  or  to  earn  the  praise  of  a  nation  that 
hates  your  own.  This  is  what  might  be 
called  wallowing  in  the  gutter  of  reform. 

The  thirty  years  chosen  as  the  time  in 
which  we  as  a  nation  have  passed  from  vir- 
tue to  the  lowest  depths  of  brutality  and 
avarice  are,  in  fact,  the  most  glorious  years 
in  the  life  of  this  or  of  any  other  nation. 

In  1861  slavery  was,  in  a  legal  sense  at 
least,  a  national  institution.  It  was  firmly 
imbedded  in  the  federal  constitution.  The 
Fugitive-Slave  Law  was  in  full  force  and 
effect.  In  all  the  Southern  and  in  nearly  all 
of  the  Northern  States  it  was  a  crime  to  give 
food,  shelter,  or  raiment  to  a  man  or  woman 
208 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

seeking  liberty  by  flight.  Humanity  was 
illegal,  hospitality  a  misdemeanor,  and  char- 
ity a  crime.  Men  and  women  were  sold  like 
beasts.  Mothers  were  robbed  of  their  babes 
while  they  stood  under  our  flag.  All  the 
sacred  relations  of  life  were  trampled  beneath 
the  bloody  feet  of  brutality  and  avarice.  Be- 
sides, so  firmly  was  slavery  fixed  in  law  and 
creed,  in  statute  and  Scripture,  that  the 
tongues  of  honest  men  were  imprisoned. 
Those  who  spoke  for  the  slave  were  mobbed 
by  Northern  lovers  of  the  "  Union." 

Now,  it  seems  to  me  that  those  were  the 
days  when  the  motto  could  properly  have 
been,  "  Plundering  made  easy."  Those  were 
the  days  of  brutality,  and  the  brutality  was 
practised  to  the  end  that  we  might  make 
money  out  of  the  unpaid  labor  of  others. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  details  as  to 
the  cause  of  the  then  condition  ;  it  is  enough 
to  say  that  the  whole  nation,  North  and  South, 
was  responsible.  There  were  many  years  of 
compromise,  and  thousands  of  statesmen,  so 
called,  through  conventions  and  platforms, 
did  what  they  could  to  preserve  slavery  and 
keep  the  Union.  These  efforts  corrupted 
209 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

politics,  demoralized  our  statesmen,  polluted 
our  courts,  and  poisoned  our  literature.  The 
Websters,  Bentons,  and  Clays  mistook  tem- 
porary expedients  for  principles,  and  really 
thought  that  the  progress  of  the  world  could 
be  stopped  by  the  resolutions  of  a  packed 
political  convention.  Yet  these  men,  mis- 
taken as  they  really  were,  worked  and 
wrought  unconsciously  in  the  cause  of  human 
freedom.  They  believed  that  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  Union  was  the  one  important 
thing,  and  that  it  could  not  be  preserved 
unless  slavery  was  protected — unless  the 
North  would  be  faithful  to  the  bargain  as 
written  in  the  Constitution.  For  the  pur- 
pose of  keeping  the  nation  true  to  the  Union 
and  false  to  itself,  these  men  exerted  every  fac- 
ulty and  all  their  strength.  They  exhausted 
their  genius  in  showing  that  slavery  was  not, 
after  all,  very  bad,  and  that  disunion  was  the 
most  terrible  calamity  that  could  by  any  pos- 
sibility befall  the  nation,  and  that  the  Union, 
even  at  the  price  of  slavery,  was  the  greatest 
possible  blessing.  They  did  not  suspect  that 
slavery  would  finally  strike  the  blow  for  dis- 
union. But  when  the  time  came  and  the 
210 


OUE  POLITICAL  DEGKADATION 

South  unsheathed  the  sword,  the  teachings 
of  these  men  as  to  the  infinite  value  of  the 
Union  gave  to  our  flag  millions  of  brave 
defenders. 

Now  let  us  see  what  has  been  accomplished 
during  the  thirty  years  of  "Brutality  and 
Avarice." 

The  republic  has  been  rebuilt  and  reunited, 
and  we  shall  remain  one  people  for  many 
centuries  to  come.  The  Mississippi  is  nature's 
protest  against  disunion.  The  constitution 
of  the  United  States  is  now  the  charter  of 
human  freedom,  and  all  laws  inconsistent 
with  the  idea  that  all  men  are  entitled  to 
liberty  have  been  repealed.  The  black  man 
knows  that  the  constitution  is  his  shield,  that 
the  laws  protect  him,  that  our  flag  is  his,  and 
the  black  mother  feels  that  her  babe  belongs 
to  her.  Where  the  slave-pen  used  to  be 
you  will  find  a  schoolhouse.  The  dealer  in 
human  flesh  is  now  a  teacher;  instead  of 
lacerating  the  back  of  a  child,  he  develops 
and  illumines  the  mind  of  a  pupil. 

There  is  now  freedom  of  speech.  Men 
are  allowed  to  utter  their  thoughts.  Lips 
are  no  longer  sealed  by  mobs.  Never  before 
211 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

in  the  history  of  our  world  has  so  much  been 
done  for  education. 

TJbe  amount  of  business  done  in  a  country 
on  credit  is  the  measure  of  confidence,  and 
confidence  is  based  upon  honesty.  So  it 
may  truthfully  be  said  that,  where  a  vast 
deal  of  business  is  done  on  credit,  an  exceed- 
ingly large  per  cent,  of  the  people  are 
regarded  as  honest.  In  our  country  a  very 
large  per  cent,  of  contracts  are  faithfully 
fulfilled.  Probably  there  is  no  nation  in  the 
world  where  so  much  business  is  done  on 
credit  as  in  the  United  States.  The  fact  that 
the  credit  of  the  republic  is  second  to  that 
of  no  other  nation  on  the  globe  would  seem 
to  be  at  least  an  indication  of  a  somewhat 
general  diffusion  of  honesty. 

The  author  of  "  Brutality  and  Avarice 
Triumphant "  seems  to  be  of  the  opinion  that 
our  country  was  demoralized  by  the  war. 
They  who  fight  for  the  right  are  not  de- 
graded— they  are  ennobled.  When  men  face 
death  and  march  to  the  mouths  of  the  guns 
for  a  principle,  they  grow  great ;  and  if  they 
come  out  of  the  conflict,  they  come  with 
added  moral  grandeur ;  they  become  better 
212 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

men,  better  citizens,  and  they  love  more  in- 
tensely than  ever  the  great  cause  for  the 
success  of  which  they  put  their  lives  in  pawn. 

The  period  of  the  Revolution  produced 
great  men.  After  the  great  victory  the  sons 
of  the  heroes  degenerated,  and  some  of  the 
greatest  principles  involved  in  the  Revolu- 
tion were  almost  forgotten. 

During  the  Civil  War  the  North  grew 
great  and  the  South  was  educated.  Never 
before  in  the  history  of  mankind  was  there 
such  a  period  of  moral  exaltation.  The 
names  that  shed  the  brightest,  the  whitest 
light  on  the  pages  of  our  history  became 
famous  then.  Against  the  few  who  were 
actuated  by  base  and  unworthy  motives  let 
us  set  the  great  army  that  fought  for  the 
republic,  the  millions  who  bared  their  breasts 
to  the  storm,  the  hundreds  and  hundreds  of 
thousands  who  did  their  duty  honestly, 
nobly,  and  went  back  to  their  wives  and 
children  with  no  thought  except  to  preserve 
the  liberties  of  themselves  and  their  fellow- 
men. 

Of  course  there  were  some  men  who  did 
not  do  their  duty — some  men  false  to  them- 
213 


OUE  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

selves  and  to  their  country.  No  one  expects 
to  find  sixty-five  millions  of  saints  in  Amer- 
ica. A  few  years  ago  a  lady  complained  to 
the  president  of  a  Western  railroad  that  a 
brakeman  had  spoken  to  her  with  great  rude- 
ness. The  president  expressed  his  regret  at 
the  incident,  and  said  among  other  things: 
"  Madam,  you  have  no  idea  how  difficult  it 
is  for  us  to  get  gentlemen  to  fill  all  those 
places." 

It  is  hardly  to  be  expected  that  the  Amer- 
ican people  should  excel  all  others  in  the 
arts,  in  poetry,  and  in  fiction.  We  have  been 
very  busy  taking  possession  of  the  republic. 
It  is  hard  to  overestimate  the  courage,  the 
industry,  the  self-denial  it  has  required  to 
fell  the  forests,  to  subdue  the  fields,  to  con- 
struct the  roads,  and  to  build  the  countless 
homes.  What  has  been  done  is  a  certificate 
of  the  honesty  and  industry  of  our  people. 

It  is  not  true  that  "  one  of  the  unwritten 
mottoes  of  our  business  morals  seems  to  say 
in  the  plainest  phraseology  possible :  '  Suc- 
cessful wrong  is  right.'  "  Men  in  this  coun- 
try are  not  esteemed  simply  because  they  are 
rich;  inquiries  are  made  as  to  how  they 
214 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

made  their  money,  as  to  how  they  use  it. 
The  American  people  do  not  fall  upon  their 
knees  before  the  golden  calf ;  the  worst  that 
can  be  said  is  that  they  think  too  much  of 
the  gold  of  the  calf — and  this  distinction  is 
seen  by  the  calves  themselves. 

Nowhere  in  the  world  is  honesty  in  busi- 
ness esteemed  more  highly  than  here.  There 
are  millions  of  business  men — merchants, 
bankers,  and  men  engaged  in  all  trades  and 
professions — to  whom  reputation  is  as  dear 
as  life. 

There  is  one  thing  in  the  article  "  Brutality 
and  Avarice  Triumphant"  that  seems  even 
more  objectionable  than  the  rest,  and  that 
is  the  statement,  or,  rather,  the  insinuation, 
that  all  the  crimes  and  the  shortcomings  of 
the  American  people  can  be  accounted  for  by 
the  fact  that  our  government  is  a  republic. 
We  are  told  that  not  long  ago  a  French 
official  complained  to  a  friend  that  he  was 
compelled  to  employ  twenty  clerks  to  do  the 
work  done  by  four  under  the  empire,  and  on 
being  asked  the  reason  answered  :  "  It  is  the 
republic."  He  was  told  that,  as  he  was 
the  head  of  the  bureau,  he  could  prevent  the 
215 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

abuse,  to  which  he  replied :  "  I  know  I  have 
the  power ;  but  I  have  been  in  this  position 
for  more  than  thirty  years,  and  am  now  too 
old  to  learn  another  occupation,  and  I  must 
make  places  for  the  friends  of  the  deputies." 
And  then  it  is  added  by  General  Hawkins : 
"  And  so  it  is  here." 

It  seems  to  me  that  it  cannot  be  fairly 
urged  that  we  have  abused  the  Indians  be- 
cause we  contend  that  all  men  have  equal 
rights  before  the  law,  or  because  we  insist 
that  governments  derive  their  just  powers 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed.  The 
probability  is  that  a  careful  reading  of  the 
history  of  the  world  will  show  that  nations 
under  the  control  of  kings  and  emperors 
have  been  guilty  of  some  cruelty.  To  ac- 
count for  the  bad  we  do  by  the  good  we  be- 
lieve is  hardly  logical.  Our  virtues  should 
not  be  made  responsible  for  our  vices. 

Is  it  possible  that  free  institutions  tend  to 
the  demoralization  of  men?  Is  a  man  dis- 
honest because  he  is  a  man  and  maintains 
the  rights  of  men  ?  In  order  to  be  a  moral 
nation  must  we  be  controlled  by  king  or 
emperor  ?  Is  human  liberty  a  mistake  ?  Is 
216 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

it  possible  that  a  citizen  of  the  great  republic 
attacks  the  liberty  of  his  fellow-citizens  ?  Is 
he  willing  to  abdicate  ?  Is  he  willing  to  ad- 
mit that  his  rights  are  not  equal  to  the  rights 
of  others  ?  Is  he,  for  the  sake  of  what  he 
calls  morality,  willing  to  become  a  serf,  a 
servant,  or  a  slave  ? 

Is  it  possible  that  "  high  character  is  im- 
practicable "  in  this  republic  ?  Is  this  the 
experience  of  the  author  of  "  Brutality  and 
Avarice  Triumphant "  ?  Is  it  true  that  "  in- 
tellectual achievement  pays  no  dividends  "  ? 
Is  it  not  a  fact  that  America  is  to-day  the 
best  market  in  the  world  for  books,  for 
music,  and  for  Art  ? 

There  is  in  our  country  no  real  foundation 
for  these  wide  and  sweeping  slanders.  This, 
in  my  judgment,  is  the  best  government,  the 
best  country,  in  the  world.  The  citizens  of 
this  republic  are,  on  the  average,  better 
clothed  and  fed  and  educated  than  any  other 
people.  They  are  fuller  of  life,  more  pro- 
gressive, quicker  to  take  advantage  of  the 
forces  of  nature,  than  any  other  of  the  chil- 
dren of  men.  Here  the  burdens  of  Govern- 
ment are  lightest,  the  responsibilities  of  the 
217 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

individual  greatest,  and  here,  in  my  judg- 
ment, are  to  be  worked  out  the  most  im- 
portant problems  of  social  science. 

Here  in  America  is  a  finer  sense  of  what  is 
due  from  man  to  man  than  you  will  find  in 
other  lands.  We  do  not  cringe  to  those 
whom  chance  has  crowned;  we  stand  erect. 

Our  sympathies  are  strong  and  quick. 
Generosity  is  almost  a  national  failing.  The 
hand  of  honest  want  is  rarely  left  unfilled. 
Great  calamities  open  the  hearts  and  hands 
of  all. 

Here  you  will  find  democracy  in  the 
family — republicanism  by  the  fireside.  Say 
what  you  will,  the  family  is  apt  to  be  pat- 
terned after  the  government.  If  a  king  is 
at  the  head  of  the  nation,  the  husband  im- 
agines himself  the  monarch  of  the  home. 
In  this  countiy  we  have  carried  into  the 
family  the  idea  on  which  the  government  is 
based.  Here  husbands  and  wives  are  begin- 
ning to  be  equals. 

The  highest  test  of  civilization  is  the  treat- 
ment of  women  and  children.  By  this  stan- 
dard America  stands  first  among  nations. 

There  is  a  magnitude,  a  scope,  a  grandeur, 
218 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

about  this  country — an  amplitude — that  sat- 
isfies the  heart  and  the  imagination.  We 
have  our  faults,  we  have  our  virtues,  but  our 
country  is  the  best. 

No  American  should  ever  write  a  line  that 
can  be  sneeringly  quoted  by  an  enemy  of  the 
great  republic. 

ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL. 


219 


IS  OURS  THE  BEST? 

IN  the  June  number  (1891)  of  the  North 
American  Review  there  was  published  an 
article  entitled — "  Brutality  and  Avarice 
Triumphant,"  in  which  I  attempted  to  por- 
tray, in  rather  strong  colors,  several  immoral 
shortcomings  which  seem  to  me  to  have  been 
the  outgrowths  peculiar  to  our  defective 
social  order  and  careless  political  administra- 
tion. 

Following  my  article  there  appeared  an 
answer  from  Colonel  Robert  Gr.  Ingersoll, 
under  the  title  of  "  Is  Avarice  Triumphant  ?  " 
After  reading  it  over  as  carefully  as  I  am 
capable  of  doing,  I  failed  to  discover,  save  in 
two  instances,  that  its  author  had  attempted 
to  controvert  my  alleged  facts.  I  fear  that 
our  brilliant  author,  whose  possession  of  a 
most  vivid  imagination  none  can  dispute, 
fails  when  he  comes  upon  the  necessity  of 
such  a  commonplace  quality  as  a  fairly  good 
memory. 

220 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Of  the  land  grants  to  the  Pacific  Railroads 
he  writes : 

"  It  was  (the  voting)  all  done  in  the  light  of  noon. 
There  is  not  the  slightest  evidence  tending  to  show 
that  the  general  policy  of  hastening  the  construction 
of  railways  through  the  territories  of  the  United 
States  was  corruptly  adopted — not  the  slightest/' 

Of  course  the  voting  was  done  in  the  light 
of  noon,  or  possibly  afternoon,  or  perhaps 
evening.  But  how  about  the  preceding 
business  of  the  lobby  arranging  for  the  votes 
so  openly  cast  ?  The  official  investigation  of 
the  unprecedented  "  Credit  Mobilier  "  frauds 
proved  conclusively  that  the  grants  to  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  were  procured  by 
bribes  and  in  the  interests  of  corruptionists. 

Afterwards  it  was  often  asserted  by  the 
Washington  correspondents  of  as  reliable 
newspapers  as  we  have  in  our  country,  and 
never  disputed,  that  the  Congressional  grants 
of  lands  and  Government  bonds  to  at  least 
two  other  Pacific  Railroads,  were  tainted 
through  and  through  with  corrupt  lobby 
influence,  but  the  manner  of  their  passage 
through  Congress  was  managed  so  discreetly, 
221 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

as  not  to  allow  any  damaging  facts  to  get 
outside  of  the  various  corrupt  cabals  inter- 
ested in  their  passage.  Enough  of  facts, 
however,  leaked  out  to  enable  correspondents 
to  make  some  rather  clear  statements  which 
to  this  time  remain  uncontroverted. 

Colonel  Ingersoll  questions  the  correctness 
of  my  allusion  to  the  so-called  Star  Route 
conspiracy,  and  says,  "  Every  one  who  knows 
the  history  of  the  Star  Route  trials  knows 
that  nothing  was  established  against  the 
defendants."  Absolutely  correct!  At  the 
second  trial  none  of  them  were  convicted,  but 
at  the  first  trial  two  were  convicted,  one 
acquitted  and  the  jury  could  not  agree  as  to 
the  others.  Thomas  I.  Brady,  one  of  the 
defendants,  was  the  assistant  Post-Master 
General  in  charge  of  Star  Routes  during  the 
period  of  the  alleged  conspiracy.  It  is  in 
evidence  that  soon  after  he  came  into  office, 
July  23,  1876,  he  commenced  "  expediting  " 
the  Star  Routes  and  ordering  enormous  pay- 
ments, in  excess  of  amounts  agreed  upon  in 
original  contracts,  for  the  supposed  necessary 
increase  of  service.  Under  his  administra- 
tion the  cost  per  mile  upon  the  Star  Routes 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

west  of  the  Mississippi  River  had  risen  to 
$16.99.  By  July  1,  1882,  with  Brady  out 
of  office,  the  cost  per  mile  was  reduced  to 
$8.62,  and  by  December  10,  1882  it  had  been 
further  reduced  to  $7.82  per  mile.  It  is  not 
known  how  much  the  "expediting"  by 
Brady  cost  the  United  States,  but  not  less 
than  $5,000,000,  and  I  have  heard  it  estimated 
as  high  as  $6,000,000.  A  large  proportion 
of  these  misappropriations  were  traced,  either 
to,  or  especially  near  to,  Brady  and  his 
alleged  co-conspirators.  The  testimony  pro- 
duced upon  the  trials  by  the  government 
appeared  to  be  conclusive.  And  why  there 
was  no  verdict  against  the  defendants,  re- 
mains to  this  day,  to  many  competent 
lawyers,  a  secret  which  they  define  as  a 
miscarriage  of  justice. 

Colonel  Ingersoll  objects  to  my  dislike  of 
"  Stock  watering"  and  takes  pleasure  in 
admitting  "that  stock  has  been  watered  in 
this  country,"  and  asks,  "  What  is  the  crime 
or  practice  of  stock  waterings  ?  "  In  my 
article  I  only  enumerated  a  few  phases  of  the 
offence  and  now  offer  a  further  view  which 
may  better  express  valid  objections.  Stock 
223 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

watering  as  to  fact  consists  of  issuing  stock 
and  bonds — one  or  both,  which  purport  to 
represent  actual  cost  of  corporate  property, 
but  which  in  fact  often  stand  for  more  than 
ten  times  the  cost  or  market  value  of  the 
property  they  are  supposed  to  represent.  In 
the  majority  of  instances  these  unwarrantable 
issues  are  made  in  the  interests  of  inside 
cabals  of  promoters,  corrupt  officials  and 
their  friends.  The  rule  is  to  water  the  stock 
for  all  the  traffic  will  bear,  and  for  the  Stock 
Exchange  to  peddle  off  to  unsuspecting  pur- 
chasers, these  supposed  securities  without 
regard  to  actual  cost  of  property.  And  then 
managing  officials,  if  possible,  compel  patrons 
to  pay  rates  for  services  high  enough  to  yield 
interest  and  dividends  upon  the  entire  corpor- 
ate issues  including  the  "water."  Not  the 
least  among  the  evils  of  "  stock  watering " 
are  the  sales  of  those  so-called  securities  to 
innocent  buyers  who  purchase  them  for  in- 
come and  learn  when  too  late  that  they  have 
become  possessed  of  worthless  pieces  of  paper. 
The  history  of  the  elevated  roads  in  the 
City  of  New  York  aptly  and  fully  illustrates 
the  evil  involved  in  this  pernicious  practice. 
224 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Their  whole  cost  was  less  than  seventeen 
millions  of  dollars,  and  the  value  now  stands, 
in  stocks  and  bonds,  at  about  seventy  mil- 
lions. If  they  were  stocked  and  bonded  at 
actual  cost,  two-cent  fares  would  pay  inter- 
est upon  bonds  and  large  dividends  upon 
stock.  Instead  of  which  the  public  is  com- 
pelled to  pay  five-cent  fares  which  go  for  in- 
terest and  dividends  upon  dishonest  issues. 

In  a  country  where  public  rights  are  prop- 
erly protected,  the  offence  described  would 
be  regarded  in  the  nature  of  a  conspiracy 
against  an  enlightened  public  policy,  and  pun- 
ished accordingly.  In  Germany,  where  I  am 
now  writing,  an  attempt  even  at  stock  water- 
ing would  probably  be  punished  with  the 
utmost  rigor.  The  German  railways  are  re- 
garded and  treated  as  creatures  of  the  sover- 
eignty incorporated  for  public  use,  and  are 
regulated  and  managed  in  the  better  inter- 
ests of  the  whole  German  people,  rather  than 
for  the  benefit  of  families,  cabals  of  officials, 
stock  gamblers,  express  companies  or  inside 
fast  freight  lines.  In  no  European  country 
are  these  outside  freight  and  small  package 
leeches  permitted  to  fasten  upon  the  corpor- 
225 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

ate  body  of  a  railway !  and  in  Germany  espe- 
cially, the  railway  service  is  exact,  and  as  a 
rule,  safe  and  remunerative.  And  whenever 
necessary  the  government  can  assume  actual 
control  of  the  entire  railway  system. 

Not  long  ago  were  two  cases  in  point,  illus- 
trating government  interference.  Two  of 
the  railway  managements  in  Eastern  Prussia 
were  detected  in  making  secret  rebates  to 
favored  shippers.  The  Minister  of  Public 
Works  at  Berlin  to  whom  this  matter  was 
reported  ordered  an  investigation  and  a  con- 
tingent suspension  of  offending  officials.  So 
close  is  the  connection  between  government 
control  and  actual  management  that  all 
changes  in  time  schedules,  freight  and  pas- 
senger rates,  have  to  be  submitted  to  a 
properly  authorized  official  and  his  consent 
obtained  before  the  changes  proposed  can 
go  into  operation.  Nor  can  a  mile  of  railway 
be  built  without  government  consent.  It  is 
assumed  that  the  taking  of  private  property, 
for  the  use  of  a  quasi  private  corporation  is, 
at  best,  a  high-handed  measure  and  that  it 
never  ought  to  be  done,  save  in  the  event  of 
a  self-evident  necessity,  and  then  solely  in  the 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

public  interest.  Scheming  promoters,  as  with 
us,  are  not  permitted  to  exercise  the  rights  of 
an  exceptional  franchise  for  the  purpose  of 
robbing  the  producing  classes  and  of  enrich- 
ing themselves.  The  result  of  this  strict  and 
perfectly  honest  supervision  is  uniformity  of 
railway  operation  throughout  the  German 
Empire.  The  service  from  one  year's  end  to 
the  other,  is  regular,  reliable  and  satisfactory 
to  all  classes.  Managing  officials  have  neither 
friends  to  serve,  enemies  to  punish  or  legisla- 
tures to  purchase.  Discriminations  in  charges 
are  not  permitted,  and  the  passenger  rates 
are  so  arranged  that  all  classes  can  travel  in 
a  manner  suited  to  their  respective  conditions. 
In  my  humble  judgment  the  German  view  of 
a  railway  system  in  its  relation  to  peoples, 
government  and  commercial  needs  is  the 
correct  one,  and  the  American  misrule  and 
practice  is  most  defective  and  fraught  with 
many  unnecessary  evils.  Railroads  are  not 
wholly  private  corporations,  but  are  insti- 
tuted— granted  by  sovereignties,  primarily 
for  the  benefit  of  the  inhabitants  of  a  country 
and  its  commerce.  And  while  it  is  a  fact 
that  those  who  promote  and  build  them  are, 
227 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGKADATION 

in  some  instances,  entitled  to  exceptional  re- 
muneration, the  power  of  active  control, 
whenever  necessary  in  the  interest  of  the  pub- 
lic, should  rest  in  the  hands  of  the  sovereign 
power  that  grants  the  franchise.  And  in  no 
other  way  can  great  scandals  and  abuses  in 
connection  with  railway  grants  and  their  uses 
be  prevented. 

I  once  heard  of  a  great  classical  scholar,  a 
professor  in  a  well-known  European  Univer- 
sity, who  composed  an  ode  in  the  best  of 
Greek,  in  praise  of  a  daring  house-breaker. 
He  gave  a  copy  to  a  friend  and  the  ode  found 
its  way  into  print.  It  created  a  stir  and  the 
learned  scholar  was  compelled  to  explain  that 
he  wrote  it  as  an  experiment.  He  desired  to 
ascertain  if  an  ode  could  be  written  in  lauda- 
tion of  such  an  incident  which  would  seem 
to  portray  the  honest  convictions  of  the 
writer.  Let  us  hope  that  Colonel  Ingersoll's 
praise  of  stock  watering  was  an  experiment 
in  the  same  line  as  the  ode  of  the  professor. 

My  respondent  is  especially  severe  upon 
individuals  who  take  the  liberty  of  calling 
public  attention  to  the  evils  complained  of  in 
my  article,  and  asks : 

228 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

"  But  is  it  hardly  fair  to  exaggerate  the  faults  of 
your  country  for  the  purpose  of  calling  attention  to 
your  own  virtues,  or  to  earn  the  praise  of  a  nation 
that  hates  your  own  ?  This  is  what  might  be  called 
wallowing  in  the  gutter  of  reform." 

That  is  the  kind  of  a  gutter  that  many 
citizens  of  the  United  States  would  like  to 
discover.  At  present,  however,  it  does  not 
appear  to  exist,  and  from  present  indications 
there  does  not  seem  to  be  a  likelihood  of  any 
considerable  amount  of  reform  wallowing. 

Wallowing  in  the  gutter  of  political  cor- 
ruption, breaches  of  trust  and  corporate 
rascality  pay  better,  and  that  is  the  reason 
why  the  other  gutter,  if  it  exists,  is  not  just 
at  this  time  particularly  well  patronized. 
In  our  current  daily  history  there  is  no  neces- 
sity for  exaggeration  of  national  sins,  or 
to  put  it  more  mildly — faults.  A  narration 
of  simple  facts  will  answer  every  purpose. 
Colonel  Ingersoll  calls  attention  to  an  un- 
precedented accumulation  of  national  glories 
within  a  certain  given  period : 

"The  thirty  years  chosen  as  the  time  in  which 
we  as  a  nation  have  passed  from  virtue  to  the  lowest 
depths  of  brutality  and   avarice   are,  in  fact,   the 
229 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

most  glorious  years  in  the  life  of  this  or  any  other 
nation." 

This  is  another  instance  of  an  inversion  of 
the  moral  sense.  Of  course  he  sings  for  the 
twenty  millionth  time  a  paean  for  the  free- 
ing of  the  slaves  and  putting  down  the 
rebellion.  To  which  every  good  citizen  will 
pronounce  a  hearty  amen.  The  most  cow- 
ardly head  of  a  household  will  rise  up  to 
defend  his  home,  communities  have  always 
defended  themselves  from  assaults  without 
and  attacks  within,  and  nations  seldom  fail 
to  defend  their  territorial  integrity.  The 
latter  is  what  the  people  of  our  North,  East 
and  West  did,  their  effort  was  crowned  with 
success,  and  incidentally  the  slave  liberated. 
The  great  contest  was  a  splendid  one  and 
has  shed  everlasting  lustre  upon  the  physical 
prowess  of  our  whole  people.  But  what 
shall  we  say  of  our  political  history  during 
the  twenty-six  years  since  the  close  of  the 
rebellion  ?  Can  it  be  pretended  that  those 
years  were  as  free  from  corruption  as  any 
like  period  in  our  previous  history  as  an  in- 
dependent nation  ? 

230 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Up  to  1860  only  the  legislatures  of  New 
York,  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  had  in- 
dulged in  the  practice  of  selling  acts  to  cor- 
rupt cabals  and  corporations.  The  custom  of 
purchasing  legislative  enactments  from  venal 
legislators  has,  within  the  glorious  period, 
become  so  common  that  it  is  doubtful  if 
there  could  be  named  one  out  of  the  forty- 
four  legislatures  which  is  free  from  the  cor- 
rupting influence  of  corporations,  money  in 
the  hands  of  professional  lobbyists  or  the 
taint  of  vicious  partisan  degradation.  In 
many  instances  the  passage  of  pernicious 
enactments  is  not  obtained  by  the  payment 
of  money,  but  for  individual  political  spoils- 
men and  corrupt  partisan  politics.  No  evi- 
dence could  more  clearly  prove  the  low 
standard  of  the  State  legislatures  than  the 
steady  decline  in  the  quality  of  statesman- 
ship of  the  United  States  Senate.  There 
was  a  time  when  that  body,  for  wisdom  and 
patriotic  aspirations  stood  without  a  peer  in 
any  land.  The  men  who  composed  it  were 
well-read,  capable  of  intelligently  consider- 
ing all  measures  brought  before  them,  na- 
tional in  their  legislative  action,  having  only 
231 


OUE  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

the  welfare  and  reputation  of  their  entire 
country  at  heart,  and  above  all  they  were 
honest  and  faithful  in  the  performance  of 
their  great  duties.  There  is  now  a  wide- 
spread belief  that  that  body  is  not  what  the 
"  Fathers  of  the  Constitution  "  intended  or 
what  it  ought  to  have  been.  Up  to  1862 
there  had  not  been  an  instance  of  the  pur- 
chase of  a  senatorial  seat.  Since  then  the 
practice  has  become,  possibly  not  common, 
but  far  too  frequent.  And  the  result  is  that 
an  intended  august  and  conservative  body 
now  stands  more  for  bank  accounts,  sec- 
tional, class  and  partisan  interests,  than  for 
brains,  statesmanship,  broad  nationality  or 
patriotism.  And  to-day,  as  it  was  fifty 
years  ago,  when  senators  were  elected  be- 
cause of  their  good  character  and  general  fit- 
ness, the  United  States  senator  is  the  crea- 
tion of  the  State  legislature. 

The  enormous  and  growing  evil  of  office 
purchasing  has,  possibly,  culminated  by  the 
appointment  to  a  high  cabinet  position  of 
an  individual  who  had  raised  a  large  sum  of 
money-corruption  funds,  to  be  used  for  the 
success  of  the  party  to  which  he  belongs. 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

It  may  now  be  said  that  a  precedent  has 
been  established  as  to  the  value  of  a  cabinet 
position,  and  if  an  often  repeated,  unrefuted 
report  tells  the  truth,  such  a  position  has 
been  obtained  for  about  four  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars.  A  further  and  another  cul- 
mination is  possible,  and  can  be  realized  in 
the  purchase  of  a  National  Convention  for 
the  nomination  of  President  of  the  United 
States.  And  in  the  belief  of  the  writer  the 
day  is  not  far  off  when  that  will  be  accom- 
plished. It  is  now  a  very  common  practice 
for  interested  parties  to  pay  the  expenses  of 
individual  delegates,  and  often  of  whole 
State  delegations  to  those  conventions,  and 
afterwards  to  reward  delegates  with  offices 
for  their  votes.  An  easier  way  to  transact 
the  business  would  be  to  buy  the  necessary 
majority  on  the  spot,  and  pay  cash  down. 
That  method  would  be  in  accordance  with 
the  views  of  a  late  notable  vice-president  of 
the  New  York  Central  Railroad,  who,  thirty- 
five  years  ago,  said  it  was  cheaper  to  pur- 
chase the  New  York  legislature  (any  number 
of  members  needed)  than  it  was  to  pay  the 
election  expenses  of  the  individual  members. 
233 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

My  critic  repeats  the  saying  of  Pitt  about 
not  being  able  to  indict  a  nation.  It  is 
quite  true,  there  is  no  regularly  constituted 
grand  jury  which  can  entertain  charges 
against  a  nation.  But  there  is  a  larger  body 
or  jury  made  up  of  the  honest  citizens  of  a 
people,  and  it  is  quite  competent  for  that 
great  inquest  to  indite  morally  by  condemn- 
ing the  corrupt  acts  and  deeds  of  those  who 
make  their  laws  and  administer  their  politi- 
cal affairs ;  and  before  that  body  any  citizen 
may  present  his  charge,  call  it  an  indictment 
or  by  any  other  name.  The  first  count  in 
such  an  indictment  might  assert  that,  in 
many  of  the  states,  a  sufficient  number  of 
votes  are  usually  purchased  to  secure  the 
control  of  their  legislatures  to  incompetent 
and  corrupt  hands ;  and  that  it  is  to  the  two 
evils  of  voters  selling  their  votes  at  the  polls, 
and  members  of  the  legislators  selling  theirs, 
not  always  for  money,  but  often  to  cabals 
and  corporations  for  other  considerations, 
that  we  are  chiefly  indebted  for  our  present 
degraded  political  conditions.  Of  course 
vicious  partisanship  is  ever  present — the 
most  important  factor  in  directing  and  shap- 
234 


OUE   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

ing  the  great  game  of  pollution,  and  for  the 
collection  of  party-spoils. 

Very  few  of  our  citizens,  I  am  sure,  at  all 
appreciate  the  power,  the  value  and  the 
dignity  of  a  vote.  In  my  humble  judgment 
the  giving  the  right  to  vote,  i.  e.,  the  power 
to  assist  in  governing  others,  to  ignorant  and 
vicious  human  beings  often  differing  from 
ordinary  brutes  only  in  form,  was  a  mon- 
strous error,  which  has  already  amounted  to  a 
crime  against  the  welfare  of  a  nation.  Its 
future  magnitude  and  its  influence  for  evil 
upon  our  nationality  is  beyond  human  calcu- 
lation. Of  the  power  given  by  the  voter  to 
the  legislator  to  make  laws  for  the  govern- 
ment of  peoples,  it  may  be  said,  it  is  at  once 
the  most  sublime  and  the  nearest  approach  to 
the  supreme  ever  bestowed  upon  man.  And 
it  ought  only  to  be  exercised  by  capable  and 
patriotic  citizens,  ever  willing  to  sacrifice 
selfish  interests  for  the  public  good.  Within 
the  boundaries  of  these  two  powers  are  com- 
passed the  foundations  of  our  whole  political 
superstructure,  and  if  they  are  venal  and 
rotten,  the  whole  governmental  edifice  which 
rests  upon  them  must  be  tainted  with  the 
235 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

foul  stench  which  flows  from  the  polluted 
sources  of  our  political  power. 

In  many  instances  in  our  later  history,  we 
have  conclusive  testimony,  proving  that  the 
ballot  in  the  hands  of  the  vicious  and  ignor- 
ant classes  is  the  most  potent  weapon  for  the 
destruction  of  decency  in  politics  and  of  hon- 
est administration  of  public  affairs,  ever 
placed  in  the  hands  of  tax  devouring  dema- 
gogues. The  outflow  from  such  a  condition 
of  debasement  is  an  unprecedented  quantity 
of  sectional,  class,  individual  and  partisan 
legislation  in  the  interest  of  sections,  classes, 
individuals  often  tax  eaters,  and  parties. 
Federal  legislation  is  seldom  national,  i.  e.,  in 
the  interest  of  the  whole  nation.  The  various 
silver  enactments  compelling  the  whole  peo- 
ple to  purchase  all  the  silver  produced  by 
the  owners  of  silver  mines,  whether  it  is 
needed  or  not  for  actual  use,  were  measures 
in  the  interest  of  a  class  and  a  section,  and 
among  the  most  pernicious  ever  enacted  by  a 
legislative  body;  and  the  one  of  1891  was, 
probably,  passed  for  the  purpose  of  keeping 
the  "  Silver  States "  in  the  Republican  line 
for  use  in  1892.  The  pension  act  of  1890 

236 


OUE  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

was  thoroughly  venal  in  its  general  purpose, 
and  in  less  than  a  year  has  done  more 
towards  lessening  the  respect  of  our  people 
for  popular  government  than  any  other  act 
ever  passed  by  Congress.  It  was  unprece- 
dented, unwarrantable,  unnecessary  and  an 
enlarged  tub  to  the  old  soldier  whale  vote  to 
keep  it  in  Eepublican  waters,  and  ought  to 
have  been  entitled — an  act  for  the  annihila- 
tion of  patriotism  and  the  promotion  of  per- 
jury and  mendicancy. 

The  later  Tariff  legislation,  the  usual  river 
and  harbor  and  public  buildings  appropria- 
tions, all  bear  the  taint  of  favor  to  sections, 
party  and  classes. 

The  political  abuses  with  which  our  people 
are  now  cursed  were,  in  the  main,  planted, 
grown  and  ripened  within  the  last  thirty 
years,  which  according  to  Colonel  Ingersoll 
was  the  most  glorious  of  all  the  national 
periods  recorded  in  the  world's  history.  Can 
that  gentleman  point  out  from  the  whole  era 
of  the  Roman  decadence  or  from  the  history 
of  the  downfall  of  any  other  nation,  a  period 
of  thirty  years  which  records  a  more  complete 
debasement  from  a  rather  decent  level  of  po- 
litical purity? 

237 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

In  England,  Germany,  Austria  and  other 
European  countries  that  might  be  named 
there  is  a  popular  prejudice  in  favor  of  legis- 
lative bodies  which  do  not  make  to  order, 
and  sell  legislative  acts  to  purchasers.  But 
in  our  country  such  a  prejudice,  if  it  exists, 
does  not  materialize  sufficiently  to  be  of  any 
visible  value.  We  may  select  as  apt  illus- 
trations of  our  methods  the  legislative  his- 
tory of  the  street  railways  in  the  State  of 
New  York,  and  those  of  the  City  of  New 
York  and  Brooklyn  in  particular.  It  is  an 
open  secret  that  many  and  probably  all  of 
their  charters  were  purchased  from  the  legis- 
lative representatives  of  the  people;  and 
public  highways  were  practically  sold  to 
cabals  for  inconsiderable  considerations  and 
the  rights  of  the  people  and  municipalities 
imperfectly  protected.  In  the  former  city 
these  and  other  corporations  that  use  the 
streets  ought,  at  least,  to  pay  in  taxes  and 
for  use  of  public  highways  an  amount  equal 
to  one-fifth  of  the  cost  of  an  honest  munici- 
pal government,  but  instead  they  contest 
many  items,  of  just  taxes  levied  upon  them 
and  do  not  contribute  more  than  a  thirty-fifth 
part  of  the  local  budget. 
•  238 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

.  The  legislature  of  the  richest  and  most  pop- 
ulous state  in  the  Union  is  only  a  prototype, 
many  of  the  others  have  become  adepts  in  the 
manufacture  and  sale  of  legislative  enact- 
ments. This  is  an  incalculable  evil  fraught 
with  most  dangerous  consequences  to  the  na- 
tion^  but  so  many  colossal  fortunes  have  been 
made  out  of  it  and  so  many  reputable  (sic) 
and  influential  individuals  connected  with 
it,  that  a  new  legislative  "  steal,"  no  matter 
of  what  gigantic  proportions,  excites  neither 
astonishment  or  protest.  Legislative  corrup- 
tion has  come  to  be  accepted  as  a  matter  of 
course,  and  so  blunted  and  demoralized  has 
the  public  conscience  become  that  very  little 
is  thought  about  it,  and  the  average  citizen 
sums  up  a  legislative  session  with  a  sigh  of 
relief  when  it  adjourns  and  thanks  the 
wretches  who  composed  it  for  its  not  having 
been  any  worse. 

It  must  be  inferred  that  the  items  described 
constitute  some  of  the  chief  glories  of  the 
matchless  period.  My  critic  does  not  quite 
adopt  the  usual  Fourth  of  July  and  election 
stump  formula  of  "  This  is  the  best  govern- 
ment and  we  are  the  greatest  and  freest  people 
239 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

the  sun  has  ever  shone  upon,"  but  he  does 
say,  "  This  in  my  judgment  is  the  best  govern- 
ment, the  best  country  in  the  world."  In 
my  belief  it  is  neither  one  nor  the  other. 
There  never  has  been  nor  is  there  now  a  best 
government  or  best  country.  All  countries 
are,  more  or  less,  good,  but  some  are  more 
favored  as  to  position,  natural  products,  soil 
and  climate  than  others,  and  no  government 
is  best. 

The  most  imperfect  scheme  of  political  gov- 
ernment—on paper,  which  now  exists,  honestly 
and  impartially  administered  in  the  equal 
interests  of  its  entire  inhabitants,  would  show 
better  results  to  the  governed  than  the  most 
perfect  compact  dishonestly  and  carelessly 
administered.  At  this  period  in  our  history 
it  is  unfair  to  compare  ourselves  with  the 
older  European  nations.  If  we  want  to  be 
honest  in  our  comparisons  we  must  wait 
until  we  have  the  same  density  of  popula- 
tion, for  instance,  as  England,  i.  e.,  the 
same  number  of  inhabitants  to  the  square 
mile  before  we  can  compare  ourselves  with 
that  country.  There  is,  however,  at  least  one 
reason  why  ours  is  now  the  better  for  all 
240 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

classes.  And  it  is  because  it  is  the  least 
populated  and  the  loaf  is  easier  attainable 
than  in  the  older  countries  of  Europe.  There 
can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  about  our  material 
progress,  the  enormous  magnitude  of  which 
must  be  admitted.  It  is  not  of  that,  that 
complaint  can  be  made.  My  charge  is  that 
in  our  vicious  race  for  material  possessions, 
we  have  lost  our  political,  and  to  an  extent, 
our  commercial  and  social  morality. 

"Why  is  ours  the  best  government'?  The 
better  of  all  governments  is  the  one  which 
secures  the  better  protection  for  the  lives, 
other  personal  rights  and  property  of  the 
governed  at  the  least  cost.  Political  govern- 
ment has  many  other  aims,  but  around  those 
paramount  greater  objects  are  grouped  all 
the  diverse  and  lesser  interests  of  the  gov- 
erned. 

Is  our  complicated  judicial  system  the  best 
the  sun  has  ever  shone  upon  ?  In  the  State 
of  New  York  the  expenses  attending  the  ju- 
dicial part  in  the  administration  of  state  laws 
are  about  three  millions  of  dollars  a  year, 
which  is  about  eight  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars less  than  the  entire  cost  of  similar  service 
241 


OUK  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

in  England  and  Wales.  Those  countries, 
two  only  in  name,  as  to  judicial  administra- 
tion, have  about  thirty  millions  of  inhabi- 
tants. New  York  has  less  than  six.  For 
this  enormous  outlay  do  we  usually  get  a 
better  quality  of  law  than  England?  Let 
the  voluminous  reports  of  the  Court  of  Ap- 
peals answer  that  question.  In  that  country 
a  murderer  is  arrested,  convicted  and  exe- 
cuted within  three  months  from  the  commis- 
sion of  the  crime,  and  from  the  verdict  of  the 
jury  there  is,  practically,  no  appeal.  In  New 
York  it  usually  takes  more  than  a  year  to 
bring  to  trial  and  convict,  and  the  carrying 
out  of  a  death  sentence  depends  upon  the  num- 
ber of  stays  and  appeals  granted  by  an  appel- 
late court,  in  the  majority  of  instances,  for 
technical  reasons  which  have  very  little  to  do 
with  facts.  In  New  York  probably  two 
years  and  a  half  is  about  the  time  it  usually 
takes  to  execute  a  death  sentence  after  the 
commission  of  the  crime. 

It  is  possible  that  there  may  be   a  very 

great   advantage   in   our  having    forty-four 

distinct  sets   of  laws,  no   two  alike,  and  a 

corresponding   number  of  complete  judicial 

242 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

machines  to  administer  them,  outside  of  the 
body  of  Federal  laws  with  the  accompany- 
ing national  courts.  But  the  exact  point 
where  the  advantage  comes  in,  or  wherein 
exists  the  superiority  of  our  complicated,  un- 
necessarily multiplied  series  of  systems  over 
the  single  body  of  laws  of  the  several  Eu- 
ropean countries  is  not  to  the  average  thinker 
quite  perceptible.  My  theory  in  relation  to 
our  judicial  arrangements  is,  that  they  are 
needlessly  numerous,  expensive,  hopelessly 
complex,  often  unintelligible  and  in  many  in- 
stances the  system  is  cursed  with  corruptly 
elected  and  appointed  incompetent  judges, 
who,  instead  of  meting  out  justice  peddle 
errors  for  appellate  courts  to  correct. 

There  is  another  political  flower  peculiar 
to  our  system  which  has  blossomed  within 
the  boundaries  of  the  matchless  period.  The 
criminal  dishonesty  in  the  administration  of 
our  municipal  governments  is  not  only  a  dis- 
grace to  us  as  a  nation,  but  of  such  magnitude 
as  to  constitute  a  blot  upon  the  civilization  of 
the  century  in  which  we  live.  Our  cities,  with 
very  few  exceptions,  are  in  the  control  of  polit- 
ical spoilsmen,  the  chiefs  being  men  who  live 
243 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

by  the  almost  open  robbery  of  tax-payers.  Our 
streets  are  the  filthiest  and  the  worst  paved 
known,  and  for  want  of  authoritative,  honest 
and  intelligent  supervision  over  general  fea- 
tures and  buildings  in  particular,  our  cities 
present  the  most  irregular  and  inartistic  ap- 
pearance of  any  in  the  civilized  world.  And 
yet  it  costs  their  inhabitants  a  larger  amount 
per  capita  to  govern  them  as  they  ought  not 
to  be,  than  it  does  those  of  other  countries 
who  in  many  instances  have  nearly  perfect 
municipal  administration.  The  New  Yorker 
pays  nearly  three  times  as  much  per  capita 
as  the  Londoner.  In  London  for  every 
pound  paid  out  its  value  is  received  either  in 
labor  or  material.  In  New  York  it  is  quite 
safe  to  assert  that  the  city  pays  two  dollars 
for  every  one  received  either  in  material  or 
labor,  and  salaries  of  from  one  to  three  thou- 
sand dollars  per  year,  in  many  hundreds  of 
instances,  are  paid  to  coarse  and  brutal 
specimens  of  foreigners,  chiefly  Irish,  who 
would  better  adorn  a  hod  or  State  prison 
than  the  positions  they  now  occupy. 

The  reason  for  these  lamentable  conditions 
is  to  be  found  in  the  single  fact  of  the  exer- 
244 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

else  of  manhood  suffrage  which  elects  the 
lawmaking,  the  governing  and  appointing 
officials  from  among  classes  totally  unfitted  to 
assist  in  the  administration  of  any  kind  of 
government.  We  may  set  it  down  as  a 
proved  fact,  that  such  suffrage  in  its  relation 
to  municipal  government  is  an  absolute  fail- 
ure, and  unless  its  baleful  influence  can  be 
checked  or  materially  neutralized,  municipal 
corruption  will  go  on  increasing  to  the  logical 
culmination  of  physical  revolt  against  the 
rule  of  knaves  who  reign  but  to  rob. 

The  most  characteristically  American  and 
the  most  completely  vicious  and  venal  out-f 
growth  from  within  the  boundaries  of  the 
matchless  period  is  the  professional,  practical 
politician.  That  creature  is  decidedly  na- 
tional. He  belongs  to  neither  section  nor 
party,  but  is  found  wherever  the  ample  folds 
of  the  American  flag  indicate  a  unit  of  popu- 
lation large  enough  for  his  peculiar  opera- 
tions. That  human  excrescence  fastened  upon 
the  body  politic,  realizing  a  degree  of  toler- 
ated infamy  unknown  to  any  other  country, 
manages  and  manipulates  caucuses  and  con- 
ventions, extorts  from  corrupt  candidates 
245 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

money  and  promises  for  vicious  use  of  power 
after  election,  and  fattens  upon  public  plunder 
which  flows  from  their  cowardice.  He  is  a 
lobbyist,  dabbles  in  bribes  and  is  the  go-be- 
tween for  secret  bargainings  between  supe- 
rior and  venal  party  managers.  He  is  always 
a  partisan,  but  ever  ready  to  make  combina- 
tions with  the  chiefs  of  an  opposing  party 
against  the  honest  administration  of  public 
affairs  and  in  the  interests  of  corrupt  politics. 
His  chief  business,  however,  is  to  prevent 
honest  and  capable  men  from  obtaining  office. 
He  sees  in  the  legislator  and  officeholder 
only  a  machine  for  the  distribution  of  polit- 
ical plunder  to  underlings,  and  the  making  of 
new  offices  and  extended  opportunities  for 
additional  manifestations  in  the  interest  of  his 
class.  He  is  the  incarnation  of  low  cunning, 
cowardice,  falsehood  and  deceit,  the  veritable 
bete  noir  of  the  republic,  and  fortunately  for 
the  cause  of  civilization,  he  has  no  counter- 
part in  any  other  country. 

Within  the  matchless  period  the  incalcu- 
lable evil  of  the  frequency  of  useless  elec- 
tions has  developed  to  an  extent  which  fifty 
years  ago  could  not  have  been  foretold.     The 
246 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

enormous  expense  attending  them  is  not  the 
greater  evil  incident  to  their  frequency.  They 
disturb  the  usual  commercial  affairs  of  the 
country  and  are  the  nurseries  of  falsehood 
and  deceit,  and  constitute  the  great  school  in 
which  the  peculiar  chicanery  incident  to  our 
politics  is  taught.  It  is  in  these  foul  contests 
that  thousands  of  American  young  men, 
yearly,  receive  their  first  lessons  in  political 
immorality  and  come  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
habitual  practice  of  deception  as  an  art,  and 
seeing  it  successful  in  politics,  gradually  come 
to  the  practice  of  deceit,  which  often  leads 
to  something  worse,  as  their  habitual  rule  of 
action. 

The  culmination  comes  once  every  four 
years  when  there  is  a  combination  of  all  the 
malignant  forces  from  out  of  our  political 
hades.  These  hordes  scent  the  coming  presi- 
dential election,  with  the  possibly  attending 
flesh-pots,  with  the  keenness  of  wolves  that 
detect  their  distant  prey  upon  the  prairies, 
and  during  many  months  before  the  day  of 
voting  they  continue  their  secret  combina- 
tions, elaborating  their  schemes  for  purchas- 
ing majorities  in  cities  and  States,  extorting 
247 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

money  from  timid  merchants  and  capitalists, 
interested  manufacturers  and  corporations 
which  are  often  their  allies.  Usually  for  six 
weeks  or  two  months  before  the  election,  the 
greater  centers  of  population  are,  in  a  meas- 
ure, converted  into  a  veritable  orgy  which 
amounts  to  a  conspiracy  against  the  political 
morality  of  a  nation.  The  worst  of  it  is  that 
this  gigantic  strife  is  not  in  the  better  inter- 
ests of  the  whole  people,  but  for  the  spoils  of 
office  and  the  attainment  of  low  partisan 
ends. 

There  probably  never  has  been  a  best  gov- 
ernment. Any  enlightened  form  of  the  po- 
litical compact  manifestly  in  the  interest  of 
an  entire  people  is  good,  and  is  better  only 
when  administered  by  honest,  capable  and 
patriotic  men.  But  the  better  scheme  or  the 
nearest  approach  to  the  perfect  organization 
ever  known,  in  the  hands  of  self-seeking  par- 
tisan demagogues,  is  sure  to  degenerate  into 
a  tyranny,  and  it  matters  not  whether  we  call 
it  an  absolute  monarchy,  empire,  constitu- 
tional monarchy  or  republic ;  if  in  the  hands 
of  bad  and  incapable  rulers  the  result  will 
always  be  the  same. 

248 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

France  has  had  the  largest  experience  of 
any  modern  nation  in  trying  to  solve  the  ques- 
tion of  the  better  government,  and  to  the  av- 
erage observer,  the  satisfactory  solution  seems 
as  far  off  now  as  it  was  a  hundred  years  ago. 
In  the  person  of  Louis  XIV,  who  was  indis- 
putably the  great  monarch  he  asserted  him- 
self to  be,  France  realized  advantages  of 
conquests,  national  prestige  and  many  of  the 
worst  evils  growing  out  of  a  purely  personal 
government.  Louis  XV  intensified  the  evils 
of  the  preceding  reign,  but  imitated  none  of 
its  greatness.  The  reign  of  Louis  XVI 
brought  the  Revolution  and  the  end  of  the 
old  order.  The  Revolution  was  a  culmina- 
tion of  a  great  reaction  which  wiped  out,  for 
a  time,  all  that  was  personal,  and  ended  old 
abuses  which  had  become  unbearable,  but 
gave  birth  to  many  new  ones  quite  as  vicious 
as  those  to  which  it  gave  the  death-blow. 
Napoleon  succeeded  a  confusion  of  seven 
so-called  governments,  which  had  covered 
a  period  of  fifteen  years,  with  a  completely 
personal  government,  which,  on  the  whole, 
accomplished  a  great  work  for  France  and 
modern  civilization. 

249 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

The  republic  and  empire  of  the  third  Napo- 
leon followed  the  frugal  and  conservative 
reign  of  Louis  Philippe,  and  the  Empire  was, 
possibly^  the  weakest  and  most  corrupt  known 
to  French  history.  The  present  republic  is 
unwarrantably  extravagant  in  its  expendi- 
tures, and  like  ours,  is  governed  by  the  di- 
rect representatives  of  the  people.  Since  the 
rule  by  the  deputies  of  the  people,  France 
has  achieved  the  distinction  of  creating  the 
largest  public  debt,  having  within  the  last 
five  years  passed  ahead  of  the  national  debts 
of  England  and  Russia,  and  now  the  people 
of  that  country  are  yearly  confronted  with  an 
enormous  deficit  of  many  millions,  (in  1890 
upwards  of  seven  hundred  and  forty  millions 
of  francs)  the  extravagance  of  appropriation 
continues,  and  there  is,  seemingly,  no  power 
to  control  the  rulers  who  are,  as  with  us, 
responsible  to  no  intelligent  concentrated 
authority. 

In  Prussia,  from  the  time  of  the  Great  Elec- 
tor, the  administration  has  been  strong,  honest 
and  frugal.  Under  Frederick  the  Great,  father 
of  the  later  Prussia,  the  administration  was 
vigorous  and  intelligent,  and  the  quaint  old 
250 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

ruler,  who  had  spent  a  life  devoted  to  the  in- 
terest of  his  country,  died  beloved  by  his 
whole  people.  The  later  Hohenzollerns  fol- 
lowed in  the  footsteps  of  their  two  illustrious 
predecessors,  and  the  present  young  ruler, 
although  possibly  somewhat  erratic,  is  giving 
ample  proof  of  his  devoted  attachment  to 
the  better  interests  of  the  German  people. 
In  that  country,  where  intelligent  and  honest 
administration  is  the  rule,  personal  and  prop- 
erty rights  are  absolutely  and  impartially 
protected,  and  at  the  least  possible  cost  to  the 
people,  and  no  citizen,  be  he  noble  or  peas- 
ant, is  beyond  the  control  of  the  law. 

The  army  is  typical  of  the  nation.  Perfect 
obedience,  subordination  and  industry  are 
exacted  from  the  highest  officer  down  through 
all  ranks  to  the  raw  recruit.  There  are  no 
favors,  all  are  treated  alike,  and  the  result  is 
that  the  army  has  become  a  great  national 
school,  where  the  sons  of  peasants  and  others 
who  come  from  the  lower  walks  of  life,  are 
thoroughly  educated  in  all  the  elements  and 
principles  which  go  far  towards  making  use- 
ful and  honest  citizens.  They  are  taught  in 
many  branches  of  education,  and  cleanliness, 
251 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

industry,  fidelity  and  obedience  are  enforced. 
The  compulsory  three  years  of  service  serves 
another  great  purpose.  It  assists  to  keep 
down  population  in  an  old  country  already 
very  much  overpopulated. 

It  is  probably  true  that  the  rate  of  taxa- 
tion, owing  to  the  compulsory  maintenance 
of  a  large  army,  is  high.  From  an  American 
standpoint  that  ought  to  be  regarded  as  a 
national  blessing.  But  if  their  taxes  are 
burdensome,  the  Germans  have  at  least  one 
advantage  over  Americans.  They  know 
what  they  are  paying,  for  nearly  all  levies 
are  direct.  With  us  our  direct  taxes  are 
village,  town,  county,  city  and  State,  and 
besides,  we  have  numberless  items  of  indirect 
taxes  which  go  for  the  support  of  the  general 
government.  Fortunately  for  our  Federal 
legislators,  the  amount  of  these  is  an  unknown 
quantity.  For  the  high  taxes  in  Germany, 
the  people  get  back  from  the  government 
many  items  of  real  value  which  our  people 
know  nothing  of.  For  instance,  the  govern- 
ment sends  a  telegram  from  one  end  of  the 
Empire  to  the  other  for  one  and  four- tenths  of 
a  cent  per  word ;  forwards  a  package  of  ten 
252 


OUE  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

pounds  to  any  part  of  the  Empire  for  about 
twelve  cents;  arranges  the  railway  passen- 
ger rates  into  four  classes,  so  that  all  may 
travel  in  a  manner  suited  to  their  respective 
conditions,  the  lowest  rate  being  less  than 
one  cent  per  mile;  supports  numerous 
museums,  galleries,  libraries;  and  the  fine 
bands  of  the  army  furnish  gratuitously  refin- 
ing amusement  to  millions  of  music  loving 
subjects.  The  reason  for  the  cheap  rates 
cited  is  that  the  government  is  the  honest 
agent  and  servant  of  the  people,  and  does 
their  business  at  the  lowest  possible  cost. 
Of  course  in  our  country  we  cannot  expect 
cheap  rates  for  like  services.  Managers  of 
private  corporations  with  stock  watered  to 
the  extent  of  from  four  to  ten  times  the  cost 
of  corporate  properties,  or  in  other  words, 
watered  for  all  the  earnings  will  bear,  do  not 
believe  in  delivering  cheap  service.  So  it 
would  appear,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
Germany  is  an  imperialism,  and  liable  to  be 
denounced  by  all  good  republicans  as  an 
unmitigated  tyranny,  it  does  in  fact  contrib- 
ute a  few  items  to  the  people,  which  materi- 
ally increase,  without  great  expense,  the  sum 
253 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

total  of  their  conveniences,  instruction  and 
happiness. 

The  Swiss  Confederation  has  a  notable 
record  for  fine  qualities  of  nationalism.  Its 
people  had,  at  various  times,  fought  against 
great  odds  many  successful  battles  for  their 
independence ;  and  in  their  civil  administra- 
tion the  sturdy  qualities  which  enabled 
them  to  conquer  upon  the  battle-field  have 
preserved,  untainted,  the  liberties  their 
arms  achieved.  Their  country  is  not  a 
productive  one,  and  its  people  are  compelled 
to  exercise  extreme  frugality  as  to  private  and 
public  expenditures ;  they  elect  the  better 
citizens  to  office ;  see  that  they  perform  their 
official  duties  honestly,  and  pay  no  high 
salaries.  The  rule  in  all  the  Cantons  is  that 
good  character  and  acknowledged  capacity 
are  conditions  precedent  to  office.  Many 
years  of  careful  and  honest  administration  of 
public  affairs  have  enabled  a  hardy  race  to 
wrest,  from  most  unfavorable  natural  sur- 
roundings, the  means  of  sustaining  them- 
selves, and  to  establish  a  reputation  as  to 
national  qualities  which  would  be  most 
creditable  to  any  other  nation. 
254 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  there  are 
existing  at  this  time,  two  republics  which  are 
notoriously  and  possibly  unwarrantably  ex- 
travagant in  relation  to  their  expenditures 
of  the  people's  money  ;  and  an  empire  and  a 
republic  administering  their  financial  affairs  in 
accordance  with  better  known  principles  of 
business  economy.  In  all  four  the  inhabit- 
ants enjoy  all  the  liberty  that  reasonable 
human  beings  are  entitled  to  demand.  In 
the  empire,  and  certainly  in  one  of  the  repub- 
lics, wholesome  legal  restraints  impartially 
imposed,  regulate  and  restrain  human  action, 
so  as  to  prevent  natural  selfishness  and  culti- 
vated greed  from  encroaching  upon  the  rights 
and  property  of  others.  And  an  enlightened 
and  well-defined  public  policy,  promoting 
justice,  the  stability  of  commercial  relations 
and  transactions,  enforcing  the  honest  execu- 
tion of  public  trusts  and  watching  over  the 
entire  field  covered  by  national  interests,  is 
the  one  great  vital  and  ever  present  principle 
that  influences  the  officials  who  govern  those 
nationalities. 

If  this  account  is  true,  form  of  government 
has  very  little  to  do  with  the  making  or  pros- 
255 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

perity  of  a  nation.  Wise  and  honest  admin- 
istrations, and  bountiful  nature,  are  the  foun- 
dation for  both. 

Our  political  compact  is  not  the  perfect 
one  which  the  average  American  claims  it  to 
be.  In  our  one  hundred  and  fifteen  years' 
existence  as  a  separate  nation  we  have  devel- 
oped our  full  share  of  weaknesses  and  abuses. 
Hence,  while  our  scheme  reads  very  well,  its 
every  day  application  to  the  needs  of  a  peo- 
ple, as  illustrated  by  its  workings  is  defec- 
tive in  many  essential  particulars.  The 
fathers  of  the  Constitution  divided  the  Gov- 
ernment into  three  sub-divisions,  for  the 
purpose,  when  necessary,  of  enabling  one 
sub-division  to  act  as  a  check  upon  the  un- 
warrantable deeds  of  the  other.  The  acts  of 
the  last  session  of  Congress,  and  the  co-oper- 
ation of  the  present  executive,  when  con- 
sidered together,  completely  set  at  naught 
the  intention  of  the  fathers.  The  intended 
conservative  Senate,  without  question,  joined 
the  popular  branch  of  Congress  in  passage  of 
the  pension,  silver,  tariff,  sugar  bounty  and 
subsidy  bills,  and  a  weak  Executive,  with 
a  desire  for  a  second  term,  unhesitatingly 
256 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

affixed  his  signature  to  a  series  of  acts  which, 
I  believe,  will  prove  to  be  against  the  gene- 
ral interests  of  the  whole  people,  not  one  of 
which  could  have  passed,  if  presented  for 
approval  to  the  popular  will.  Unfortunately 
those  acts  are  constitutional,  and  cannot  be 
presented  to  the  third  sub-division,  the  ju- 
dicial, for  revision,  and  unless  repealed  must 
stand  as  significant  instances  of  the  tyranny 
of  an  unpatriotic  majority  in  a  republic 
which  boasts  of  the  unrivalled  liberty  of  its 
citizens. 

It  may  be  said  of  these  extraordinary  and 
unnecessary  appropriations,  direct,  indirect 
and  contingent  as  to  total,  and  made  in  a 
time  of  peace,  that  they  stand  without  prece- 
dent in  the  history  of  legislation. 

By  pandering  to  the  demands  of  sections, 
the  government  is  admitting  and  re-erecting 
over  again,  upon  more  solid  foundations  than 
ever,  the  destructive  heresy  of  State  rights, 
which  cost  five  hundred  thousand  lives  and 
five  billions  of  dollars  to  eliminate  from  its 
discordant  position  in  our  political  system. 
In  the  South  the  claim  for  State  rights  was 
an  ideal,  founded,  to  an  extent,  upon  an  old 
357 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

sentiment  which  was  colonial  in  its  origin 
and  not  a  real  condition.  The  special  legis- 
lation of  our  later  time  has  revived  the  old 
evil.  But  now  it  has  for  its  foundation  the 
selfishness  and  the  sordid  greed  of  sections, 
and  bears  about  it  none  of  the  saving  grace 
of  ideality. 

Nature  contributed  the  new  continent  for 
an  experiment,  a  clean  sheet  upon  which  to 
write  a  new  government.  Its  location  in- 
sures freedom  from  complications  with 
troublesome  neighbors;  its  magnitude  fur- 
nishes every  variety  of  climate  ;  its  rocks  and 
earth  yield  nearly  every  known  mineral ;  its 
soil  is  capable  of  producing  every  kind  of 
useful  crop,  and  its  two  ocean-washed  sides 
make  it  easily  accessible  to  the  commerce  of 
the  world.  Never  was  a  people  so  favored 
before  with  such  bounteous  natural  con- 
ditions, and  if  we  fail  to  create  a  truly  great 
race  and  a  wise  government,  it  will  be  the 
fault  of  man  failing  to  appreciate  the  excep- 
tional opportunity  placed  within  his  keeping. 

One  of  our  prevailing  national  characteris- 
tics is  a  placid  belief  in  the  superiority  of 
present  conditions  and  habitually  mistaking 
258 


OUE   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

of  bigness  for  greatness.  We  believe  that 
because  we  have  more  acres  of  smoke-stacks 
and  more  miles  of  railway  than  any  other 
nation,  that  those  facts  which  relate  to  the 
material  only,  really  constitute  the  greatest 
people  the  world  has  ever  known.  It  is  true 
that  certain  phases  of  American  individuality 
are  monumental  and  in  many  directions  most 
commendable.  The  numerous  splendid  gifts 
for  colleges,  schools,  libraries,  museums,  elee- 
mosynary and  other  institutions  attest  the  en- 
lightened and  liberal  spirit  of  many  of  our 
better  citizens  and  are  worthy  of  all  praise. 
Such  acts,  however,  are  not  national  but  be- 
long to  individuals,  and  in  no  sense  can  they 
be  attributed  to  form  of  government  or 
national  traits.  A  nation,  in  order  to  be 
truly  great,  must  be  moral  as  well  as  big. 
Bigness  alone  cannot  excuse  the  absence  of 
honesty  in  the  administration  of  the  political 
business  of  a  nation,  and  until  we  can  reform 
many  of  the  glaring  abuses  which  now  exist, 
the  less  we  boast  of  our  bigness  the  better. 

What  is  needed  is  another  heroic  uprising 
of  all  decent  citizens  who  place  country  and 
good  government  above  party  and  selfish  in- 
259 


OUK  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

terests.  It  is  time  to  drive  the  Irish  ruffians 
and  groggery  keepers  from  their  dominant 
position  in  the  politics  of  the  municipalities, 
and  the  partisan,  self-seeking  mental  infini- 
tesimals from  legislative  seats  and  other 
positions  of  power  under  the  Federal  and 
States  governments.  When  those  reforms 
are  made,  many  others  quite  as  important 
will  Be  possible.  And  much  will  have  been 
accomplished  to  warrant  the  boasting  of 
those  superior  and  complacent  patriots,  whose 
vivid  imaginations  transform  thistle  patches 
into  beds  of  roses. 

RUSH  C.  HAWKINS. 


260 


LATEST  FROM  THE  FRONT. 

YEARS  ago,  as  they  were  written,  several 
of  these  papers  were  submitted  to  an  ac- 
quaintance of  the  present  time  "  Statesman  " 
order,  one  of  the  providing  and  taking  kind, 
for  his  opinion  and  advice.  He  said: 
"  Don't  print  them.  It  would  ruin  you  for 
the  rest  of  your  life ;  and  besides  the  evils 
you  complain  of  will  cure  themselves.  They 
are  the  result  of  the  war,  and  we'll  come  out 
all  right  after  a  little  more  time."  I  knew 
he  was  wrong,  and  that  we  were  certain  to 
keep  on  going  from  bad  to  veiy  much  worse ; 
but,  for  certain  reasons  other  than  those 
stated,  they  were  not  printed. 

During  the  Civil  War  we  took  on,  to  re- 
main, the  habit  of  large  payments  for  small 
returns ;  and  it  now  not  only  applies  to  the 
national  political  unit,  but  to  the  State,  city, 
county,  village  and  town  as  well.  We  have 
become  so  hardened  to  criminal  extravagance 
in  the  conduct  of  our  public  business  that 
no  one  now  questions  its  immorality;  and 

*  Written  in  December  1903. 
361 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

the  tax-eater  revels  at  the  expense  of  the 
unfortunates  who  are  compelled  to  produce. 
But,  notwithstanding,  we  have  gotten  along 
"  somehow,"  and  public  affairs  have  moved 
on  fairly  well,  our  kind  of  fairly  well,  until 
1889  when  Benjamin  Harrison  reached  the 
White  House.  Soon  after  his  advent  there 
he  made  up  his  mind  that  his  new  place 
suited  him,  and  that  a  second  four  years 
would  come  near  rewarding  him  for  his  ex- 
cess of  public  virtue :  and  so  he  set  about 
inventing  many  wheels  for  his  new  machine, 
which  the  confiding  people  were  to  be  made 
to  pay  for  the  running. 

Where  statistics  exist  within  the  reach  of 
all  searching  hands,  it  is  unnecessary  to  cite 
elaborate  statistical  particulars ;  and  for  that 
reason  they  are  not  stated.  By  the  aid  of 
the  President's  eager  assistance,  the  "  River 
and  Harbor  Bill" — always  known  as  the 
"  Annual  Steal," — and  the  public  buildings 
appropriations,  were  pushed  up  to  enormous 
dimensions — more  than  double,  in  amounts 
per  year,  of  those  made  by  any  previous  ad- 
ministration. The  members  from  the  "  Sil- 
ver States  "  forced  through  a  bill  compelling 
262 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

the  purchase  of  $2,000,000  worth  of  their 
favorite  metal  per  month ;  this  was  in  addi- 
tion to  the  $2,000,000  we  were  already  buy- 
ing. Neither  amount  was  needed  by  the 
Government  or  wanted  by  the  people ;  and 
nearly  the  whole  of  the  results  of  this  politi- 
cal juggle  purchase  remained  in  vaults  for 
many  years  without  being  used.  These  pur- 
chases, as  intended,  maintained  an  abnormal 
value ;  and  as  soon  as  they  were  discontinued, 
the  price  of  silver  declined  to  about  one-half 
of  the  amount  the  Government  had  paid  for 
its  holdings.  But  the  "  Silver  States  "  were 
kept  in  the  Republican  line  ready  for  use 
at  the  next  Republican  Presidential  Conven- 
tion. The  crowning  infamy  of  this  attempt 
at  place-continuing,  was  the  signing  of  the 
Pension  Act  of  June  27,  1890.  This  act 
burst  wide  open  the  public  treasury  vaults, 
and  turned  the  much  courted  and  politician 
feared  "  Old  Soldier  "  into  a  perjured  mendi- 
cant ;  and  encouraged  the  "  Grand  Army  of 
the  Republic"  (sic)  to  continue  its  war  cry 
of  : — "  We  have  saved  the  earth,  and  demand 
its  contents  in  payment  for  our  patriotic 


services." 


263 


OUE   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

In  1869,  General  Garfield,  who  was  chair- 
man of  the  House  of  Representatives  Pensions 
Committee,  stood  up  in  his  place  and  apolo- 
gized for  the  amount,  about  $30,000,000  ap- 
propriated for  that  year,  saying  : — "  We  have 
reached  the  limit  and  from  this  time  on  there 
will  be  a  gradual  diminution."  Under  the  pro- 
visions of  that  law  (1890)  we  have  paid  to  the 
end  of  the  last  fiscal  year  about  $1,300,000,000 
and  still  they  come;  and  instead  of  the  promis- 
ed diminution  there  has  been  a  fourfold  in- 
crease. The  old  soldiers  and  their  multitudes 
of  widows,  the  majority  of  these  of  the  post- 
bellum  sort,  continue  to  come,  and  the  "  Grand 
Army "  is  as  active  as  ever.  The  total 
amount  paid  up  to  the  end  of  the  last  fiscal 
year,  on  account  of  Civil  war  pensions  was 
$2,878,240,400.  In  1887  the  entire  cost  of 
the  German  Army,  maintainance,  arms,  ord- 
nance, fortifications,  etc.,  etc.,  was  $129,680,- 
000,  while  our  pensions  for  that  period  called 
for  $140,360,000.  These  figures  show,  that 
38  years  after  the  close  of  our  contest,  our 
army  under  ground  and  its  remains  above,  cost 
$10,950,000  more  than  the  living  army  of 
Germany,  which  is  the  best  organized  and 
264 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

equipped  of  all  the  armies  in  the  world; 
and  second  only  in  size  to  that  of  Russia. 
At  the  time  when  we  had  ventured  to  hope 
that  we  had  reached  the  maximum  of  yearly 
payments  for  pensions,  the  Spanish  war 
veteran  is  beginning  to  show  signs  of  activity ; 
and  we  now  see  looming  up  in  the  immediate 
foreground,  those  gallant  martyrs  who  made 
that  fearful  newspaper  charge  up  Wind  Mill 
Hill  led  on,  to  gore  and  deeds  of  fearful  im- 
port, by  that  mighty  host  of  on-rushing  riders. 
They  are  now  preparing  for  another  and  a 
mightier  charge  upon  the  treasury.  This  will 
give  the  "  Grand  Army  "  a  new  lease  of  life; 
and  cause  it  to  pass  more  bellicose  resolutions 
for  higher  pensions  and  more  of  them.  Pres- 
ent indications  point  to  the  depressing  fact 
that  our  "  Old  Soldier  "  supply  is  far  from 
being  exhausted ;  and  that  our  newly  made 
ninety  day  heroes,  under  the  act,  who  neither 
saw  an  enemy  or  smelt  burning  powder,  save 
at  guard  mount  or  target  practice,  during  their 
perilous  service,  will  be  able  to  keep  the  pen- 
sion roster  up  to  the  one  hundred  and  forty 
million  point  for  many  years  to  come. 

But  what  if  the  pension  payments  should 
265 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

diminish  and  the  "  Grand  Army  of  the  Re- 
public "  furl  its  flag  ?  Even  then,  there  would 
be  but  little  relief  from  the  voracity  of  the 
tax-eater:  for  there  is  a  new  fraud  taking 
root  which  is  destined  to  fashion  a  mantle,  of 
respectability  for  the  unprecedented  pension 
enormity.  For  several  years  it  has  been 
coming  quietly,  like  a  thief  in  the  night ;  but 
surely,  and  is  now  firmly  set  in  our  unfortu- 
nate soil ;  and  is  known  by  the  faithful  of 
the  "  Deestricts  "  as  the  "  Rural  Free  Deliv- 
ery." Outside  of  the  ring  of  those  who  are 
permitted  to  know,  it  is  not  known  in  whose 
brain  this  scheme  for  enormous  plunder  was 
coined;  but  we  have  a  suspicion  that  a  high 
post-office  official,  well  known  to  fame,  who 
came  from  near  the  banks  of  the  "Mighty 
Wabash,"  may  have  been  present  at  the  time 
of  its  birth  and  afterwards,  certainly,  be- 
came one  of  its  chief  promoters. 

The  pretended  object  of  this  to  be  perpet- 
ual "  job  "  is  distribution  where  there  is  little 
of  importance  to  distribute ;  and  by  the  time 
it  is  working  up  to  its  highest  pressure,  we 
are  to  have  about  sixty  thousand  or  more  not 
needed  mail-carriers  dipping  their  fingers  into 
266 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

the  public  treasury.  By  the  end  of  this  fis- 
cal year  we  are  to  have  24,500  routes  in  full 
operation  at  a  cost  of  at  least  $15,000,000, 
and  during  the  next  fiscal  year  the  new  routes 
to  be  established  will  cost  $5,500,000  addi- 
tional. So  with  only  one-third  of  the  prob- 
able or  possible  total,  we  will  have  a  yearly 
payment  of  $20,500,000.  The  worst  of  it  is, 
this  gigantic  scheme  of  political  rascality  has 
come  to  stay.  In  relation  to  the  pension 
scheme  we  may  venture  the  shadow  of  a  hope 
that  we  might  some  time  in  the  far  off  dis- 
tance see  the  end.  But  there  can  be  no  hope, 
of  seeing  the  end  of  this — save  by  national 
bankruptcy  or  revolution. 

These  are  called  Congressional  routes,  and 
are  located  in  Congressional  districts  where 
the  contractors  to  cany  can  do  the  most 
good.  They  are  outside  the  Civil  Service 
regulations,  and  consequently,  at  liberty  to 
assist  in  manipulating  conventions  in  the 
interests  of  the  faithful,  who  may  desire  to 
be  retained  in  office. 

Probably,  a  large  majority  of  these  routes 
were  uncalled  for, and  established  where  there 
was   no   necessity  for  them.     I  happen  to 
267 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

know  of  two  where  three-fourths  of  the  resi- 
dents along  each  would  be  glad  to  return  to 
the  former  status;  one  covers  about  eight, 
miles,  and  formerly  had  three  post  stations 
each  selling  about  $35  worth  of  stamps  per 
year ;  and  the  mail  carrier  for  three  times  a 
week  received  $175  ; — now  the  government 
pays  $600,  for  a  daily  carrying  of  the  mail 
over  a  route  where  there  is  very  little  to 
carry,  and  a  daily  delivery  that  was  neither 
needed  or  desired,  exists  ;  in  fact  so  hostile 
are  the  farmers  along  this  route  that  only 
one  quarter  of  them  have  purchased  the 
"  Regulation  iron  box," — the  others  have  no 
boxes  at  all. 

The  high  pressure,  flag  waving  American,  at 
home  or  abroad,  often  proclaims  in  stentorian 
tones,  that  this  is  not  a  paternal  govern- 
ment. But  in  the  face  and  eyes  of  that 
boast,  it  seems  rather  clear  that  the  paternal 
spoils-partaking  and  spoils-providing  politi- 
cian takes  particularly  good  care  of  his  useful 
children — always  at  the  cost  of  the  tax-pro- 
ducer. 

At  this  time,  of  all  the  national  depart- 
ments, the  postal  presents  by  far  the  largest 
268 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

and  most  fruitful  field  for  the  reapings  of 
our  "Statesman"  who  is  so  completely  pecu- 
liar to  the  period.  With  its  about  74,170 
post-offices,  its  great  army  made  up  of 
employees,  contractors  and  the  rapidly  grow- 
ing division  of  rural  carriers,-  the  possibili- 
ties for  successful  dark-lantern  political  ma- 
nipulation must  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 
largest  among  our  unknown  quantities. 

A  President  in  chair,  seeking  a  second 
term,  can  garner  from  this  fruitful  source,  if 
cultivated  by  an  expert,  untold  influence 
which  would  be  very  useful  at  a  convention 
assembled  for  the  purpose  of  nominating  a 
presidential  candidate ;  and  possibly  we  may 
have  such  an  expert  at  this  moment  who  was 
especially  called  for  the  purpose  of  growing 
the  kind  of  a  crop  suggested,  for  use  at  the 
next  Republican  party  Presidential  nomina- 
ting convention. 

The  following  from  the  Milwaukee  Free 
Press^  leading  Republican  journal,of  Dec.l  8, 
1901  ,may  possibly  explain  the  why  of  the  call: 

"  If  the  President  had   studied  how  to  put   the 
greatest  possible  affront  upon  the  voters  of  a   State 
269 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

who  gave  100,000  majority  for  the  Kepublican 
ticket  last  fall,  he  could  not  have  selected  a  better 
means  for  doing  it.  And  if  he  had  studied  to  select 
the  man  whose  whole  record  has  been  in  sharpest 
contrast  with  his  own,  who  is  the  embodiment  of 
what  is  known  as  commercialism  in  politics,  he 
could  not  have  found  in  Wisconsin  any  other  man 
who  would  so  well  suit  his  purpose." 

What  kind  of  goods  is  this  official  expected 
to  deliver  ? 

The  facts  disclosed  by  the  present  investi- 
gation showing  the  enormous  magnitude  and 
far  reaching  scope  of  frauds  committed  by  post- 
office  officials  must  be  regarded  as  the  only 
logical  answer  to  that  question.  A  pessimist, 
in  this  statement,  would  find  sufficient  war- 
rant for  believing  that  he  was  appointed 
to  do  what  is  being  done  : — "  To  work  his 
department  for  all  it's  worth,"  politically. 

Probably  at  no  time  during  the  last  forty- 
five  or  fifty  years  have  our  public  lands  offices 
been  without  their  expert  malefactors, — 
officials  or  employees — one  or  both,  ever  ready 
to  join  hands  with  the  "Land  and  Lumber 
Thieves"  in  their  schemes  to  rob  the  govern- 
ment. 

270 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

This  particular  kind  of  dishonesty  is  of  so 
ancient  an  origin  and  has  flourished  for  so 
many  years,  that  it  has  come  to  be  regarded, 
in  some  parts  of  the  West  as  a  sort  of  a 
birthright ;  and  lands  and  timber  stolen  from 
the  government  by  prominent  and  influential 
citizens  are  regarded  as  property  found  with- 
out owners;  and  it  would  be  quite  impossible 
to  make  even  an  approximate  estimate  of  the 
value  of  these  takings.  Once  in  a  while,  as 
in  the  other  departments,  there  conies  a  great 
tidal  wave  of  these  frauds  of  colossal  dimen- 
sions, which  cannot  be  concealed  and  must 
receive  the  attention  of  high  officials,  and 
then  the  usual  investigation  is  set  in  motion 
with  the  usual  results.  The  stealings  traced, 
no  recoveries  of  value,  and  the  knaves  go  free. 

Of  late  such  a  wave  has  been  passing 
over  us ;  and  possibly,  the  boldest  of  all  yet 
known,  and  affecting  the  largest  area  of 
territory,  and  the  most  successful  as  to  the 
total  value  of  its  takings.  From  undisputed 
newspaper  accounts  of  official  investigations, 
it  has  been  proved  that  the  amount  involved 
goes  up  into  the  millions.  The  culprits  are 
within  reach  and  their  crimes  provable  ;  and 
271 


OUR,  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

the  questions  of  punishment  and  restitution 
are  as  nebulous  as  in  former  instances  of  like 
nature. 

With  us  the  robbing  of  any  political  unit 
of  our  government  is  easily  accomplished, 
but  punishment  of  the  robbers  most  difficult ; 
in  fact  so  difficult  has  it  become,  that  it  is 
seldom  inflicted.  In  other  departments  than 
those  mentioned  there  are  small  pilferings  by 
the  lesser  officials  and  employees  who  have 
to  do  with  public  moneys,  which  are  often 
discovered  and  promptly  punished ;  but  they 
are  criminals  of  the  small  fry  order,  mostly 
in  the  classified  service  who  have  no  friends 
at  the  high  court  of  practical  politics ;  and  of 
course  they  are  "  railroaded "  to  the  stripes 
without  stars. 

It  has  come  to  this  that  the  chiefs  of  the 
most  of  our  greater  departments  and  their 
immediate  subordinates  —  all  of  whom  are 
charged  with  important  responsibilities, — are 
taken  from  the  all  powerful  body  of  party- 
workers  and  wire-pullers.  They  are  usually 
selected  by  the  "  Congressional  Delegation," 
and  it  is  probably  true  that  neither  moral, 
mental,  business  nor  educational  qualifications 
272 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

are  often  considered.  When  the  delegation 
presents  a  name  to  the  President,  the  question, 
pro  forma,  as  a  matter  of  course,  is  asked 
about  fitness  and  is  always  answered  in  the 
affirmative ;  and  it  goes  without  saying  that 
the  candidate  has  done  valuable  party  work 
at  all  elections — especially  at  the  late  presiden- 
tial. If  there  are  among  us  those  who  would 
like  to  know,  particularly,  about  the  quality 
of  a  goodly  number  among  the  officeholders 
appointed  by  our  Presidents  from  this  limited 
field,  let  them  read  our  criminal  statistics  for 
the  last  forty  years. 

In  the  States  and  the  lesser  political  units, 
the  rule  about  rewarding  workers,  is  if  pos- 
sible, more  stringently  applied  than  by  the 
General  Government.  In  these  the  "  Hench- 
men" of  the  "  Bosses  "  are  the  only  ones  to 
receive  the  emoluments  of  office,  or  employees' 
positions  in  the  public  service.  A  layman, 
outside  of  the  classified  service,  no  matter  how 
well  qualified  morally  and  educationally  for 
the  holding  of  any  public  position,  stands  not- 
one  chance  in  a  thousand  of  obtaining  position 
or  employment. 

The  naturalization  abuse  goes  on,  all  over 
our  country,  uninterruptedly  and  increasing 
273 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

in  volume,  not  one  judge  in  twenty  who 
administers  the  law  taking  the  judicial  view 
of  his  duty.  They  usually  ask  two  or  three 
formal  questions,  hear  the  ready  prepared 
answers,  sign  the  paper  placed  before  them, 
and  call  the  next.  In  most  instances,  a  few 
searching  questions  would  disclose  conditions 
showing  absolute  unfitness  under  the  law  to 
become  citizens. 

In  the  summer  of  1902,  one  of  the  most 
eminent  among  the  European  scientists  who 
is  also  well  known  as  a  publicist,  asked  this 
question :  "  Why  is  it  in  your  country,  that 
you  admit  so  many  undesirable  emigrants  to 
citizenship?  Those  of  us  over  here  who 
think  we  know  something  of  the  eifect  of 
power  upon  our  politics  wielded  by  such  a 
class  as  you  admit  to  your  political  house- 
hold, are  constantly  on  the  watch  to  prevent 
their  interference  in  our  governmental  affairs. 
Our  object  lesson  is  the  present  condition 
of  France  with  its  three  or  four  hundred 
millions  of  francs  deficit  each  year,  the  result 
of  its  extended  suffrage." 

Yearly,  the  United  States  Senate  is  going 
lower  down  in  public  estimation,  and  grad- 
274 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

ually,  but  surely,  taking  into  its  ranks  the 
most  powerful  and  corrupt  of  the  place-seeking 
and  place-peddling  "  Bosses  "  of  the  various 
commonwealths;  and  the  multi-millionaire 
who  buys  legislative  votes,  openly,  is  now 
coming  to  the  front,  and  without  question, 
takes  a  seat  among  his  fellows  who  welcome 
him  as  an  appropriate  member  of  their  asso- 
ciation. 

It  is  doubtful  if  any  well  informed  citizen 
having  any  regard  for  his  reputation  for 
intelligence,  would  assert  that  there  is  a  sin- 
gle member  of  the  present  United  States 
Senate  to  whom  the  term  of  statesman  could 
be  applied.  From  one  of  the  Eastern  States 
there  is  a  kindly  old  gentleman,  who  upon 
several  occasions  has  tried  to  inject  a  color 
of  the  decalogue  into  the  actions  of  that 
body.  But  he  might  as  well  have  talked  to 
a  railway  train  rushing  ahead  at  sixty  miles 
an  hour.  His  associates  always  pretend  to 
listen  to  him,  respectfully,  and  then  vote  the 
other  way.  This  Senator  comes  nearer  to 
being  a  statesman  than  any  other  member 
of  the  present  Senate — a  once  illustrious  and 
so  honorable  a  body  that  every  true  Ameri- 
275 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

can  was  justly  proud  of  its  reputation  among 
the  Nations  of  the  earth. 

But  why  go  on  with  the  rattling  of  old 
skeletons  ?  We  know  that  our  vicious  politi- 
cal methods  are  spreading  and  are  openly 
practised  with  little  pretence  at  concealment ; 
and  that  the  decent  law-abiding  citizens  of  the 
country  are,  in  politics,  helplessly  tied  hand 
and  foot  by  the  "Bosses";  and  that  the  chances 
in  favor  of  reform  in  the  broad  field  of  our  rot- 
ten politics  are  growing  less  with  the  passage 
of  each  year ;  and  we  might  as  well  own  to 
ourselves  that  we  have  now  reached  a  point 
in  our  history  where  the  spirit  of  resignation 
and  arm-folding  are  in  order;  and  our 
active  interest  in  public  affairs  can  be  com- 
passed in  the  asking  of  a  single  question  : — 
Of  what  complexion  will  be  our  approaching 
IMPER  ATOR  ?  From  what  part  of  the  line 
made  up  of  our  ruling  classes  shall  we  be 
compelled  to  accept  him?  Will  he  be  one  of 
our  almost  Supreme  "  Bosses,"  the  owner  of  a 
Sovereign  state,  a  manufacturer  of  Presidents 
who  has  manipulated  himself  into  the  United 
States  Senate :  a  Celt  graduate  from  the 
groggeiy  Class  backed  by  the  Holy  Mother 
276 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Church;  or  will  he  be  one  of  our  great  stock- 
watering  multi-millionaires,  whose  dishonesty 
in  acquiring  his  millions  has  made  countless 
among  the  helpless  mourn  ? 

New  York,  November  3,  1903. 


277 


SOME  EESULTS   OF  CKIMINAL 
MATERIALISM.* 

IF  it  were  possible  to  formulate  the  con- 
stituent parts  of  our  civilization  by  resorting 
to  a  scale  of  ten,  we  would  be  compelled  to 
credit  nine  parts  to  materialism  and  one  part 
to  an  insignificant  group  of  uncertain  and 
almost  unknown  quantities.  The  reasons  for 
this  classification  are  perfectly  plain.  For 
the  proposition  is  self-evident  to  the  average 
human  understanding,  that  all  our  roads, 
directly  or  indirectly,  lead  to  the  pursuit  of 
material  objectives.  Our  most  successful 
churches  are  those  which  have  the  larger 
number  of  millionaires  seated  on  the  centre 
aisle — near  the  pulpit  end.  The  most  power- 
ful politician  is  the  one  who  sucks  the  sub- 
stance which  flows  from  the  stench  befouled 
rifts  in  the  seamy  side  of  corrupt  politics; 
and  the  men  of  dominant  influence  in  our 
communities  are  those  who  have  made  their 

*  Written  in  the  month  of  January,  1901. 

MS 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

unearned  millions  by  corrupting  all  the 
sources  of  political  authority  found  standing 
in  the  way  of  their  nefarious  schemes.  To 
these  too  much  worshipped  habitual  sharpers 
all  gates  are  open,  and  the  whole  field  of 
human  activities  and  honors  is  theirs  to 
choose  from.  In  the  world  of  Vanity  Fair 
where  they  enter  by  contract,  they  are  espe- 
cially potent.  Soon  as  millions  enough  are 
accumulated  they  place  their  orders  for  the 
required  quantity  of  aristocracy — of  the 
tailor-made  variety,  same  as  they  would  pur- 
chase commodities  for  eveiy-day  use,  by  the 
yard,  pound  or  bushel,  to  be  delivered  in 
New  York  or  Newport,  according  to  season. 
This  potential  aggregation  of  watering-pot 
millionaires  have  set  the  pace  for  the  fashion- 
ables all  over  the  United  States,  and  created 
an  ostentatious  standard  of  ill-breeding  and 
bad  manners,  which  for  pretentious  over- 
bearing has  never  been  witnessed  elsewhere. 
There  are  other  places  of  lesser  note,  out- 
posts, as  it  were,  of  the  "  Fashionable  Set,"  in 
many  of  the  older  states;  and  New  Yorl^ 
may  be  regarded  as  its  most  efficient  and  per- 
manent stronghold :  but  Newport,  is,  pre- 
279 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

eminently,  the  Royal  exchange  and  clearing 
house  where  our  peculiar  brand  of  nobility 
receives  its  Passer- Barrier e  and  disports 
itself  at  its  best. 

Our  materialism  is  at  once  the  most  exact- 
ing and  intolerant  of  all  masters.  It  exacts 
the  possession  of  wealth,  recognizes  nothing 
else,  and  tolerates  the  most  colossal  schemes 
of  fraud  and  deception  in  obtaining  it.  The 
millions  once  obtained  and  their  possessor 
out  of  prison,  no  questions  are  asked.  The 
combination  of  schemer  and  gold  enforces 
respect  from  all  classes,  while  morality,  hon- 
esty and  yearning  for  the  decencies  and  hon- 
est government,  which  ought  to  be  the  foun- 
dations of  all  civilization,  sit  upon  the  fallen 
ramparts  of  our  once  noble  national  structure, 
vainly  imploring  our  heedless  throng  not  to 
complete  the  destruction  of  our  national 
integrity.  So  used  have  we  become  to  the 
worship  of  the  gold  of  the  calf,  inventing 
excuses  for  successful  knavery  and  applaud- 
ing the  gigantic  proportions  of  thrifty  ras- 
cality, that  we  have  forgotten  that  in  the 
conduct  of  our  every-day  affairs  the  quality 
of  moral  honesty  ever  obtained,  or  that  there 
280 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

is  a  present  necessity  for  little  else  than  that 
sort  of  cunning  which  makes  the  usurer  suc- 
cessful, and  those  mountains  of  deception  and 
trickery  which  crown  each  day's  crime  with 
a  new  brood  of  millionaires,  whose  success  is 
coined  out  of  the  confiding  credulity  of  the 
thoughtless  and  helpless. 

We  have  bowed  down  so  low  before  the 
imperious  tyranny  of  material  success,  no 
matter  how  obtained,  that  we  can  bend  no 
lower.  We  have  crowned  the  stockwatering, 
official  bribing,  tax  evading  money  god  with 
the  honors  which  the  ancients  laid  at  the  feet 
of  true  greatness ;  and  in  our  debased  esti- 
mate of  the  uses  of  humanity,  bestowed  upon 
these  walking  human  monsters  of  monumental 
corruption  all  the  tributes  of  admiration 
we  have  to  bestow:  thus  proclaiming  our 
unbounded  approval  of  the  qualities  and 
deeds  which  all  honest  men  and  gentlemen 
ought  to  condemn.  And  so  we  send  out  to 
the  world  a  new  dictum  and  leave  a  new 
admonition  for  those  who  come  after  us, 
which  reads  as  plain  as  day : — That  success- 
ful wrong  is  right,  which  may  be  accepted  as 
a  new  application,  with  a  slight  variation,  of 
281 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

the  old  assumption  of  tyrants,  that  might 
makes  right. 

Not  content  with  giving  our  every-day 
affairs  the  taint  of  that  deceit  which  has  pro- 
duced our  debased  commercialism,  the  over- 
whelming inflow  of  its  ever  increasing  tide 
has  degraded  the  arts,  abolished  gentle  man- 
ners and  good  breeding,  and  lowered  public 
and  social  morals,  so  that  we  are  no  longer 
able  to  discern  where  the  truly  moral  leaves 
off  and  debauchery  begins.  Our  perverted 
habits  of  thought  and  vitiated  tastes  have 
transformed  our  sources  of  literature  into 
manufactories  of  abnormal  literary  hashes, 
which  do  not  instruct  and  ought  not  to 
amuse.  The  occupation  of  the  historian  has 
departed  and  the  inspiring  works  of  the 
poets  consigned  to  the  dust  bins  for  the  use- 
less, while  the  commercial  writer  who  pre- 
sents his  bill  for  each  day's  work  has  taken 
the  place  of  the  author. 

The  most  baleful  and  thoroughly  disas- 
trous, in  its  widespread  results,  of  all  the 
victories  achieved  by  materialism  is  that 
phase  of  it  which  has  submerged  out  of  sight 
and  beyond  all  hope  of  resurrection,  decency 
282 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

in  politics.  In  the  bringing  of  the  "  Boss  "  and 
the  "  Business  Man  "  into  politics  we  have 
fashioned  politics  into  business;  and  have 
made  of  political  office  and  honors  matters  of 
commercial  barter;  and  banished  the  states- 
man forever  from  the  field  once  trodden  by 
historic  patriots,  chosen  by  intelligent  con- 
stituents for  admitted  fitness,  capacity  and 
integrity,  who  honored  the  high  positions 
bestowed  upon  them,  and  gave  the  Ameri- 
cans their  rightful  position  among  the  civilized 
peoples  of  the  earth. 

These  notable  prototypes,  who  laid  the 
foundations  and  erected  the  structure  of  all 
that  is  truly  great  in  our  nationality,  have 
disappeared,  and  in  their  places  we  have  the 
completely  disreputable  huckstering,  quick- 
turning,  spoils-seeking,  bribe-taking  machine 
corruptionist,  who  knows  nothing  of  the 
moral  side  of  political  occupations,  and  re- 
gards office  as  a  mine  out  of  which  to  evolve 
emoluments  and  substantial  profits.  These 
are  the  usuals  often  sent  from  the  slums  of 
the  cities  and  the  meagrely  furnished  back 
room  office  of  the  countiy  crossroads  vora- 
cious lawyer. 

283 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

With  the  end  of  a  four  years'  curse  of  a 
mighty  war,  came  the  great  change  in  the 
quality  of  the  nationality  left  to  us  by  the 
Fathers.  Striving  for  lofty  political  ideals 
and  pursuit  of  noble  purpose  was  no  longer 
admired  or  demanded ;  seemingly,  the  tricks- 
ster  was  what  we  wanted.  We  found  him 
by  the  legion  and  he  is  with  us  to  remain  and 
to  rule;  and  so  used  have  we  become  to 
his  tyrannical  sway,  that  we  stand  idly  by 
witnessing  the  constant  and  open  practice 
of  political  corruption,  which  is  surely  and 
speedily  leading  to  the  complete  subjuga- 
tion of  our  political  rights. 

But  what  is  most  lamentable,  and  ought  to 
crush  to  the  earth  with  its  weight  of  shame 
every  honest  citizen  who  possesses  pride  of 
race  or  love  of  country,  is  our  knowledge  of 
the  open  selling,  once  in  every  four  years, 
of  the  higher  offices  in  the  gift  of  the 
people,  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  means 
with  which  to  corruptly  advance  purely  par- 
tisan purposes.  We  are  told  that  so  clearly 
defined  by  the  machine  powers,  has  this  cus- 
tom become,  of  paying  for  office  in  advance 
upon  promise  to  deliver  after  Presidential 

284 


OUR   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

election,  that  the  greater  offices  which  the 
successful  party  may  have  to  parcel  out,  are 
scheduled  in  order  and  priced  according  to 
prominence  and  importance.  The  "  work- 
ers" no  matter  of  what  sort,  where  from, 
whether  fit  or  unfit,  reputable  or  disreputable, 
are  rewarded  with  the  lesser  places ;  while 
the  greater  are  reserved  for  the  money  lords 
who  would  rather  pay  than  work.  For  this 
particular  phase  of  our  political  degradation 
we  are  indebted  to  Jackson  who  was  the  first 
President  to  pay  political  debts  with  office. 
But  notwithstanding  the  partisan  support  be- 
stowed upon  the  Jackson  method  it  proved 
to  be  a  plant  of  slow  growth,  which  required 
time  and  change  in  habit  of  national  thought, 
to  crystallize  into  exact  working  form. 
From  the  close  of  the  rebellion  its  roots  com- 
menced to  take  deeper  hold  in  our  political 
soil,  and  the  branches  to  spread ;  and  within 
a  few  years  after  the  practice  of  handing  over 
of  office  for  questionable  political  work  be- 
came an  open  one,  and  now  strange  as  it  may 
appear,  is  acknowledged  as  an  obligation  to 
be  satisfied  like  others  relating  to  the  ordi- 
nary transactions  of  every-day  life. 
285 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

The  carrying  out  to  its  full  completeness 
and  seeming  finality  of  this  malignant  scheme 
of  wholesale  corruption,  was  consummated 
only  a  few  years  ago ;  and  was  the  achieve- 
ment of  a  mighty  "  Boss "  in  control  of  a 
campaign,  who,  being  hard  pushed  for  funds, 
suggested  the  secret  auction  block,  and  sent 
out  the  cry  of  "  how  much  ? "  to  the  ambitious 
millionaires  who  possessed  the  itching  desire 
to  become  great.  The  scheme  succeeded  so 
well  that  its  inventor  was  regarded  as  a 
Moses  in  the  way  of  filling  depleted  political 
machine  exchequers.  After  this  achievement, 
so  transcendently  powerful  did  he  become 
that  a  great  position  was  made  for  him 
which  he  now  adorns,  and  besides  he  was 
compelled  to  become  the  "  Supreme  Boss  " 
for  the  management  of  a  second  campaign, 
which,  financially,  he  conducted  to  an  un- 
precedented success. 

This  political  deity,  who  is  in  reality,  pos- 
sibly, the  most  thoroughly  unscrupulous 
corruptionist  demagogue  who  has  ever  dis- 
graced our  political  history,  is  worshipped 
by  the  faithful;  and  to-day  is  the  most  pow- 
erful single  man  factor  in  our  governmental 
286 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

affairs,  carrying,  as  it  were,  in  the  palm  of 
his  hand,  more  of  the  destinies  of  this  nation 
of  seventy-five  millions  of  human  beings, 
than  any  other  single  citizen.  The  career  of 
this  man,  in  his  favorite  field  of  operations, 
exemplifies  more  clearly  than  any  other  of 
his  period  could,  the  irresistible  force  and 
power  of  venal  materialism. 

The  unscrupulous  managers  of  the  great 
corporations  which  are  all  powerful,  in  our 
vast  field  of  seething  corruption,  often  pay 
to  control  office,  but  only  in  a  great  emer- 
gency, for  office.  Their  aim  is  to  ascend  the 
most  lofty  heights  in  our  great  scheme  of 
political  and  commercial  debasement,  and 
they  never  descend  to  small  affairs.  In  their 
exclusive  field  they  are  no  till-tappers.  They 
despoil  treasuries  and  rob  communities  of 
franchises  of  untold  value,  for  which  they 
pay  little  or  no  compensation,  and  often 
throttle  the  more  important  of  the  common 
necessities  of  every-day  life,  with  that  aca- 
demic ease  and  perfectly  adjusted  formula 
born  of  long  practice :  the  result  of  devices 
set  in  motion  by  the  most  expert  and  thor- 
oughly lawless  tolerated  cabals  of  profes- 
287 


OUR  POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

sional  knaves  known  to  history.  Ghoul- 
like  they  do  their  evil  work  in  darkness 
when  preparing  their  foul  feasts  from  out  of 
the  depths  of  official  depravity;  and  con- 
stantly revel  in  the  spoils  flowing  from  their 
unhallowed  victories,  which  an  honest  savage 
would  scorn  to  touch.  They  habitually  defy 
laws,  human  and  divine,  devised  for  the 
enforcement  of  good  faith  and  wholesome 
regulation  which  ought  to  govern  the  usual 
transactions  between  man  and  man ;  and  their 
daily  ambitions  in  pernicious  purpose,  equal 
the  most  ardent  dream  of  the  practiced  crimi- 
nal for  professional  success.  Their  Heaven 
would  be  an  honest  man's  hell. 

Thirty  years  ago  the  ruling  "  Boss  "  of 
that  day  defiantly  inscribed  upon  his  banner 
for  the  use  of  his  kind — for  all  time — this 
motto :  "  What  are  you  going  to  do  about 
it?"  Ten  years  later,  another  "Boss"  of 
another  kind,  a  prototype,  an  ally  of  the 
other,  and  a  notable  reaper  in  his  field  of 
abundant  political  tares,  formulated  and  pro- 
claimed another  motto — he  also  for  his  kind 
— when  he  said  to  his  sixty-five  millions  of 
fellow  sovereigns :  "  The  Public  be  Damned. " 
288 


OUK   POLITICAL  DEGRADATION 

Each  body  of  efficient  workers  which  has 
labored  so  faithfully  for  the  crushing  out  of 
honesty  and  in  the  pursuit  of  political  and 
corporate  aggrandisement,  adopted  these  war 
cries,  and  ever  since,  have  been  ardent  disci- 
ples of  the  teachings  of  their  now  canonized 
saints.  These  two  potent  forces,  with  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  as  an  active  and 
profit  sharing  third,  and  an  ally  of  both,  are 
the  dominant  powers  now  governing  and 
shaping  politically,  socially  and  commercially 
the  destinies  of  the  admittedly  greatest  com- 
mercial nation  on  earth.  And  each  in  its 
allotted  sphere  toils  unceasingly  for  the  suc- 
cesses of  nefarious  schemes  which  grow  in  all 
seasons  and  yield  results,  and  which  make  all 
known  accounts  of  scoundrelism  in  the  past 
pale  into  insignificance  when  compared  to 
the  achievements  of  the  least  among  our 
giants,  in  our  peculiarly  American  field  of 
criminal  materialism. 


289 


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